Kuuga: Remnants of a Forgotten Past
by The Aeon Offspring
Summary: An ancient evil from before recorded history was unleashed upon the World of Remnant. The Unidentified Lifeforms savagely kill any human or faunus they find, even giving Hunters trouble with their strange powers and super healing. It's up to Team RWBY to fight back this new evil, with the help of a stranger from another world. Unidentified Lifeform #4, Kuuga. *Rated M for violence*
1. Chapter 1: Rebirth

**Greetings to all who have come here. I am The Aeon Offspring, and this is my first FanFiction. This crossover is of two of my favorite series, Kamen Rider and RWBY.**

**For those not in the know, Kamen Rider is a highly popular series from Japan. It's been around since ****1971 and was created by manga legend ****Shotaro Ishinomori, who you may ****recognize****as**** the creator of Cyborg 009 and Super Sentai, ****the latter of****which Power Rangers is based off of.**

**RWBY is a popular webseries that ****is produced by Rooster Teeth Productions, creators of another popular ****webseries ****you may know about, Red vs. Blue. ****The one who created the concept of RWBY is Monty Oum, director, writer, animator, voice actor, and overall awesome guy. You may recognize him for creating the web animations Dead Fantasy and Haloid.**

**I****'ve had this idea for a story for a while and when I did research on the lore of Kamen Rider Kuuga (the particular series I'm crossing over) and RWBY, it became more and more apparent that these works would mesh really well together. ****So I decided to bite the bullet and post the story on this site where it will be free for anyone to criticize... Suddenly starting to feel less confident about this.**

**Well anyway, before I start this tale,**** I'd like to give a shout out to the Ten-Faced Paladin, ****who's story "Familiar of ZerOOO" ****helped**** inspired me to write this.**

**I think I've given enough exposition on how this fic ca****m****e to be, so let's get started shall we?**

**Kamen Rider Kuuga is owned by ****Shotaro Ishinomori ****and the Toei Company.**

**RWBY is owned by ****Monty Oum ****and Rooster Teeth Productions.**

**This story is written for entertainment purposes. Please support the official release.**

**-****xXx-**

_Legends. Stories scattered through t__i__me. M__a__nkind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past._

_Remnants of what? That still remains a mystery. While man knows of its struggle against the Creatures of Grimm, they have been unable to find evidence of how mankind lived before the emergence of the Grimm._

_Many__ have hypothesized that man lived __a simple life, where there was no war and only peace. Others believe that man had technology that was more advanced than what exists today and they were cruel beings that only wanted war, until the Grimm rose from dar__kness. Some have the thought that life was the same __a__s it is now only without the threat of the Grimm._

_However, without any relics from before the fall, mankind will never know of its previous history. But history __has found ways__ to repeat itself, and __not everything stays lost forever. The past can make itself known, and not all things are meant to come back._

_A__nd while disaster may __arise, there are those who will fight against these threats. Heroes will be made during this time._

_And legends will be reborn._

**-****xXx-**

**Kuuga: Remnants of a Forgotten Past**

**-xXx-**

**Chapter 1: Rebirth**

_Vale_

_Beacon Academy – 6:30 A.M._

The early morning sun was shining high above Beacon Academy. It was the first weekend of the school year and the student populous was either sleeping in or getting ready to go out to the town of Vale. The latter of which is what a particular team was doing.

In one dormitory room, four girls were just about finished getting dressed. One of them was munching away on a bag of cookies as she waited on the others to finish. She is the shortest of her roommates, only 5 ft. 2 in., but this is natural due to also being the youngest person in the whole school. Her _very_ dark brown hair is cut short, stylized to look a bit wild but still neat enough to be presentable, and has it longer on the right side of her face. Her hair fades to red as it gets closer to the edges. She has a pale white complexion that emphasizes her hair color. Upon her young frame is a black blouse and skirt that both have red trimmings, black leggings, and black boots with red laces and soles. Additions to this outfit are a black corset with red strings, a dark gray belt that holds a large number of .50 caliber bullets in individual loops on her left, along with an ammo pouch on her right, and is topped off by an elaborate silver rose buckle. Her ensemble is completed by her red hooded cloak which she always has on (even over her school uniform), which is fastened by cross shaped pins and her most striking feature would be her silver eyes. This is Ruby Rose, 15 years old, devourer of cookies, and is probably more adorable than any girl her age should be.

The next girl is pretty much done getting dressed and is focusing on combing her hair, which she is making sure was perfectly straight. While being two years older than Ruby, she's actually the second shortest of her team, only trumping Ruby's height by an inch. Her long white hair, which if one were to look closely has a slight pale blue tint, is done in a side ponytail on her right and is adorned with a small but elaborate tiara that resembles icicles in shape. On her thin upper body is thigh length white dress that fades to pale blue as it goes from top to bottom with a piece of black lace making up the neckline. A sash is tied around her waist that is the same pale blue as the dress and a pale blue pouch is attached to the back. A bolero jacket of the same color scheme with a red interior is worn over her dress, the design of a snowflake on the back. Upon her slender legs are white, heeled wedge boots that go to mid-calf; the insides are also lined with red and are most likely the reason as to why she's taller than Ruby. She wears an apple-shaped necklace and a pair of rectangular earrings as accessories. She has light-blue eyes along with a pale white complexion and her otherwise perfect skin is marred by a scar on her left eye. This is Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and, much to her confusion, Ice Queen of Beacon.

Another girl, much like Ruby, is already done getting dressed and was waiting on the other two girls to finish. She's currently reading today's newspaper, seeing if there was anything interesting happening in town while they're out. She is the second tallest of her team, standing at 5 ft. 6 in. and has long, wavy black hair that stops at her waistline. On her mildly curvacious frame is a black buttoned vest with coattails and a white, sleeveless undershirt that exposes part of her midriff with white shorts that have a zipper on the front of each leg. Stockings that start off black at her hips, but gradually fade to purple as they near her black low-heeled boots adorn her legs and feet. The outside of the stockings have white symbols on the side, appearing to be belladonna flowers. She wears black ribbons on both of her arms, with a black detached sleeve and a silver band on her left arm. Around her neck is a detached scarf-like collar. Her skin has a light olive complexion adorned with amber colored eyes which are complemented by light-purple eye shadow which flare backwards. Due to her naturally upwards shifting eyes, along with her purple bow upon her hair, she has a distinctly catlike appearance. This is Blake Belladonna, Beacon's resident bookworm and probably the number one fan of the Ninjas of Love book series (though, she'd be the first to deny it).

The final girl was taking the longest to get dressed, most likely due to still being half-asleep and trying not to damage her hair. She was the tallest of the four, standing at 5 ft. 8 in.. She has long blonde hair that flows in a loose and messy manner, with a few locks sticking out and a small cowlick on top of her head and becomes lighter in color at the tips. Her voluptuous upper frame is held in check only with a tan vest. Said vest is trimmed with gold piping over a yellow, low-cut crop top with a black crest that resembles a burning heart and puffy cap sleeves with black cuffs. On the sides of the cuffs are two small, golden buttons Her thighs are dressed in black shorts, which has a brown, pleated back skirt attached. Said shorts are held in check by a brown belt, which also holsters a brown pouch on the left side. Underneath the back skirt is a second, asymmetrical, white back skirt. Said second back skirt is longer on the right side and fades into purple towards the bottom. An orange infinity scarf is wrapped around her neck. On her feet are brown, knee-high platform boots that appear to be made of leather, with orange socks of different lengths. Her left leg also has a gray, bandana-like object wrapped around the top of the boot. Her pale skin is complimented by eyes that are lilac in color, seen as beautiful by the majority of Beacon's student body. Right now she is finishing her ensemble by putting on a pair of fingerless black gloves and two yellow mechanical looking gauntlets with a black design. This is Yang Xiao Long, older sister of Ruby Rose, violent protector of her hair, and hotter than the sun in the middle of July. A title which she enjoys holding and many of the guys of the Academy would already agree that it fits her to a tee.

Together, they are Team RWBY, one of the newest teams of Beacon, Academy of Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-Training, and show the potential to be one of the best.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Lets focus back on the four Huntress'-in-Training shall we.

Yang let out a loud yawn. "Can someone please remind me why we're up so early on a _Saturday _morning?"She spoke tiredly as she finished putting on her gauntlets.

"I already told you Yang." Ruby replied after she swallowed the baked good in her mouth. "This is to help us get to know each other better. That way when we fight, we'll be so in sync we'll be unstoppable!" She finished saying this with a fist pump, excited by the idea of bonding and becoming even stronger than they are now.

"I know that." Yang stated. "But why does it have to be _this_ early. I was kind of hoping to spend my first weekend here sleeping in."

"Um..." Ruby didn't exactly have an answer to that question. In fact thinking about it now started to make herself question why she decided to set her alarm to _6:30 _in the morning. "... More time for bonding?" She replied with a nervous smile.

"You got overexcited again, didn't ya sis?" Yang could help but smirk at her sister, seeing right through her poorly constructed ruse.

"Hehe... sorry." Ruby let out an embarrassed laugh trying to fight down the blush on her face.

"Eh it's alright Rubes, just make sure it doesn't happen too often, okay?" Yang said with a smile. She knew her sister could get like this, mostly because it happened a lot when they were younger. Luckily, Ruby had gotten better at controlling her excitement as she got older, but stuff like this still tended to happen.

After the initiation to actually get into the academy (which involved fighting creatures of darkness, collecting chess pieces, and decapitating a giant killer crow), Ruby was declared as leader of Team RWBY during the Acceptance Ceremony by the academy's headmaster himself, Professor Ozpin. This did not sit to well with one of them (Weiss) who thought that she should be the leader.

It eventually led to Weiss snapping at Ruby the next day, making her begin to doubt her worth as a leader. However, after some words of encouragement from the Headmaster himself, Ruby became determined to become the best leader she can be. As for Weiss, after she talked to Peter Port, Professor of the Grimm Studies class, she came to realize that she shouldn't judge Ruby's leadership qualities without getting to really know her first. Weiss decided to start trying not only to become the best Huntress she could be, but also the best person she could be.

This was all during the first day of classes.

The rest of the week was significantly more pleasant for the both of them. Ruby was focusing in all her classes (even the boring ones like Port's) and kept her goofing off in class to a minimum. Weiss is now showing her more friendly side, to the point that her criticisms on Ruby, while still being rather... Weiss-y... have a kind undertone that Ruby and the rest of the team can pick up on.

It was on Thursday that Ruby came up with the idea for this little venture. She decided that since they were all going to be teammates for the next four years, that they should all hang out every now and then on the weekends in order to build on their friendships and their bonds as teammates. When Ruby had explained her reason as to why she wanted to go out, she was met with varying responses.

Weiss was delightfully surprised at Ruby's reasoning. This made her proud for her choice in believing in the younger girl.

Blake was impressed. Despite being two years younger than them, she was taking her job as leader very seriously. And the fact that she came up with this plan all by herself was all the more impressive.

Yang... well, Yang squealed in delight and gave Ruby a bone crushing hug, declaring how proud she is that her little sister is already acting so mature.

Needless to say, Weiss and Blake had to restrain her before Ruby ran out of air.

"There, I'm finished." Weiss stated as she put down her brush. "Now, we should decide where we'll spend our time, unless it was your intention that we just meander about the town." While Weiss was all for this excursion, she still found it pretty dumb that Ruby didn't even bother to think of a place to go to while in Vale.

"Well... we could probably think of something while we grab a bite to eat." Ruby spoke, putting a finger on her chin, already thinking of things that they could all do together.

"Now you're talkin' my language!" Yang said enthusiastically. Apparently the only thing needed to completely wake her up was mentioning breakfast.

"Hm?" Something in the newspaper seemed to have caught Blake's attention. Seeing that Blake had barely even made a sound the entire morning, everyone in the room immediately turned their eyes towards her.

"What's up Blake?" Yang asked her, curious as to what could have caused the silent bookworm to speak.

"Oh, this newspaper article just caught my interest is all." Blake replied in an interested tone.

Curious to know what type of article would draw a response from the usually silent reader, Ruby asked, "What's it about?"

Blake decided to read the article out loud for the rest of the team to hear.

"Museum Receives Ancient Relics That Could Change History.

"The Vale Museum of History was donated various artifacts discovered in one of the mountains near Beacon Academy. The artifacts were found in a tomb that is theorized to be five thousand years old, though experts have stated that the ruins may be even older.

"The first exploration team had, for a time, lost contact upon discovering the tomb. A rescue team was sent, only to find that the exploration team were all deceased. It is thought that, due to the gruesomeness of the injuries, this wad done by subterranean Grimm living within the ruins."

"Does the article say anything else?" Weiss questioned, having her interest piqued.

"Yes, it goes on to describe a couple of artifacts found at the site. Among them was something similar to a large, broken, belt with a shattered crystal at its center. It was apparently next to stone tablets with ancient writing on them." Blake replied. There were pictures of said artifacts to go along with the descriptions.

"Hm, that actually sounds interesting." Weiss said, understating her excitement. "Maybe we could go there today?"

"Oooh! Yeah, let's go!" Ruby wasn't as excited as Weiss, but she was certainly curious.

"What? I don't want to spend my day in a stuffy museum..." Yang complained, being the least interested member of her team. Poor her.

"C'mon, sis, we're not going to be there all day! Besides, aren't you at least the tiniest bit curious?"

"Mmmmmmm... ugh, fine... But after this we're going to see that horror flick that just came out!" Yang responded with a wide grin on her face.

"Wait, what?"

With her face still beaming, Yang responded, "Gotta make some compromises every once in a while, y'know?"

"Well... alri-"

_Grow~llll... _Everybody turned their heads towards their stomachs. Even Ruby's, who's stomach apparently wasn't satisfied with just the bag of cookies she was having.

"…..."

"Let's get something to eat first." Blake stated, speaking everyone's mind.

**-xXx-  
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_Meanwhile, in another world..._

_'Let's see... Clothes? Check. Swag bag? Check. Complete Selection Arcle? Double check. I'm convention ready!' _A young man thought as he left his apartment, about to self-awaringly spend his money on useless anime and video game junk.

The 17 year old had a mostly average build, though a bit on the scrawny side. The young man was 5 ft. 9 in. which while may sound tall, really wasn't when compared to most of the people he's met, who usually measure over 6 feet. He had a full head of slightly shaggy brown hair which covered his ears. The front of it curls to the left of his face. Though, a single lock of hair curls over the right side, which aggravates him every morning. His skin is naturally tanned and would be darker if he bothered to go outside more often. Because of this, he has a very light tanned complexion as opposed to just being pale. Covering up his deep, cobalt blue eyes are a pair of large, thick rimmed glasses. He wore a blue, short sleeved, open button-up shirt with a black undershirt. In addition, he wore brown khaki pants and white and blue sneakers. His name? "Crys" Cobolt, self-proclaimed nerd... Kinda underwhelming, isn't he?

"ACHOO! Ugh, somebody's talking shit about me again aren't they?" Crys could only say this with an annoyed tone as he rubbed his nose.

Crys was on his way to a convention out in the city, having to take a bus from the suburbs.

He carried two duffel bags. One bag contained a weeks worth of extra clothes, his convention and hotel money, and the Complete Selection belt. While the convention itself only lasted three days, Crys wanted to have spare clothes on hand in case he spilled something on himself. The second bag was completely empty. The reason for that was that this bag was meant to hold whatever he bought during the convention.

It took months of careful money management, absolutely no impulse buying, and cutting down on his food budget, but he finally saved enough money to get a hotel room, the con tickets, and anything he's bound to buy at the numerous convention stalls.

_'This con better be worth all that saving. Even without impulse buying I missed out on some pretty sweet games these past few months.' _Crys was still a bit upset about not getting the latest Mario game but he was still very excited about the convention.

Crys is a big fan of Kamen Rider, more specifically, Kamen Rider Kuuga. He liked the dark tone of the series and the protagonist. He looked up to his heroic nature and his desire to keep everyone smiling. Also, his two thousand talents were pretty impressive. The only real talents Crys has are cooking, sewing and drawing.

Despite Kamen Rider not being very well known out in the west, Crys had decided to cosplay as Kuuga, or at least, someone about to transform into Kuuga. The Complete Selection Arcle itself was its own session of money management and in the end, Crys wasn't able to have enough money to commission a complete costume.

_'Aw well.' _Crys thought bitterly, _'At least I won't be costume naked while there.'_

A few minutes later, Crys was thinking about what type of posters the con had while still walking to the bus stop. He was eventually brought out of that train of thought when a glint of light caught his eye.

"Hmm?" The glint came from a field next to the sidewalk he was on. Curiosity getting the best of him, Crys decided to see what the potentially shiny object was.

When he picked up the object, Crys' eyes almost bulged out of his head. "W-whoa!"

The object was a hexagonal prism with pointed ends. It was roughly the standard size of a prism, maybe a bit larger in diameter, but this wasn't what caught Crys' attention. What caught his attention was the fact that depending on what angle the prism was held, it shined a different color. Not only that, but when Crys picked it up, he could tell that it wasn't made out of glass, but solid crystal!

Crys was speechless. Here he was, on his way to a convention, when he finds something that was probably worth more than he'll ever make in his entire life.

_'I-I could sell this for a fortune!'_ Crys was beginning to think of the benefits of finding such a treasure.

_'I-I could quit my second job. No no, better yet, I'll never have to seriously work again!' _He was already imagining all the things he could buy. That motorcycle he always wanted, game systems with all the games that he could ever want, even all that awesome Kamen Rider memorabilia that's ridiculously expens-

_'Wait a minute.' _Crys halted his thought process when he came to realize, _'Why is something so obviously expensive just laying on a grassy field?' _He looked at the prism again. It was cleanly cut. No crystal that he knew of could naturally form into such a symmetrical shape. The only conclusion that Crys could come to was that the prism belonged to someone.

_'Someone lost this.' _This was the only reason that Crys could think of as to why such a valuable object such as this would just be lying on the sidewalk free for the taking. With all of these factors adding up he came into a dilemma.

Should he keep the crystal or return it to its rightful owner?

It would be rather easy to do the former. Even now he noticed that the general area he was standing in had no people around. Seriously, there was absolutely no one around as far as he could tell. Was there something going on that Crys didn't know about? He was honestly starting to get a little creeped out being all alone here.

_'You're going on a tangent again Crys. Focus on the matter at hand!'_ Crys shook his head, trying to get back to the point he was making.

Back to the actual topic, all he would have to do was get it appraised and sold in a separate city and not draw attention to himself by lavishly spending his ill gotten gains. As long as he was careful, he could spend a good portion of his life not working hard and living rather comfortably.

But then another idea popped up in his head that honestly started to make him feel sick for just having that previous train of thought.

_'This thing could have special meaning to whoever had lost it.'_ He could be wrong though. The prism could belong to someone wealthy, someone who probably even had multiple of these precious crystals just lying around. Who wouldn't miss a relatively inexpensive (to that guy at least) trinket.

But there was always the possibility of the person who lost it not being rich. Someone who knew how much the prism was worth but hadn't sold it due to it having sentimental value.

Crys could understand that way of thinking. While the item he owned in particular that was actually worthless in anyone elses hands, he wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.

_'… The police station isn't too far away from the direction of the bus stop. I'll drop this off there.'_ With a sigh, Crys decided that returning the prism was the best course of action.

Taking away someones happiness, their smile, is something that Crys would never want to do.

To keep it the prism safe, he put it in the bag containing his clothes, not noticing the crystal begin to glow.

_'The police'll probably want to ask questions. I should hurry to the station to get that over with so I can still get plenty of convention time.'_ With renewed vigor, Crys began to jog towards the direction of the police station, the streets still noticeably empty.

The prism, meanwhile, was beginning to glow even brighter, the shine unnoticed by Crys due to the duffel bag.

As he continued jogging, the light grew brighter and brighter, to the point where it began to leak out of the bag.

Crys finally took notice of the glow, "What the-!?" but before he could reach into the bag, a bright flash came from the prism, which ignored the bag that was originally confining the light.

The flash was too bright. Crys had to shield his eyes or risk going blind. The flash grew even brighter, and completely shrouded his body.

It ended as soon as it began. When the light had died down, the street was now truly empty.

Crys Cobolt... was no longer on the World of Earth.

**-****xXx-**

_The World of Remnant_

_Vale – 6:40 A.M._

It was around twenty minutes ago when a Vale police car spotted the giant spider web that was in between two buildings. The police officers did their best not to panic when they saw it. The only things that ever made webs this big were the known species of spider Grimm. Although it's impossible for a Grimm to sneak into the city, the officers didn't want to take any chances.

The two officers in the car immediately called it in and requested both back up and to contact a Hunter. They should be able to at least hold the Grimm back in time for the Hunter to arrive, maybe even kill it if they get lucky enough. It took ten minutes for the back up to arrive, around ten police officers, and then five minutes to evacuate the immediate area. It was now 6:40 when the thing that spun the huge spider web appeared before the officers.

And it wasn't a Grimm.

The creature had green skin with a muscular build. It was wearing what appeared to be a tan loin cloth that was kept in place with a belt that had an elaborate designed buckle, along with a bronze detached collar just below its neck. As accessories the creature had light tan colored bandages wrapped around its forearms, pairs of black bands around its right upper arm and knees, and bronze anklets. The creature had four clawed toes and had a pair of claws protruding from slightly above its wrists. The most shocking feature of this being was its head. The head looked like a spider, with a pair of large black eyes in the center along with two smaller pairs of the same color on the sides of the first pair. It's mouth was the same as a spiders but without the mandibles that arachnids usually have. On the sides of it's head the creature had eight short protrusions that one could compare to spider legs. The only hair it had on it's body was a small tuft on the top of it's head in what appeared to be a style similar to a mohawk.

It was staring at the officers, as a spider would stare at a fly caught in its web.

"W-what is that thing!?" One of the officers asked, trying to mask the fear in his voice but failing.

Before anyone could reply the creature shot out a web from it's mouth, attaching to one of the officers. It then swiftly pulled the webbing, causing the ensnared policeman to go flying towards the spider-like being.

The creature grabbed the officer by the throat using it's left hand. It then proceeded to raise it's right, and the claws on it's wrist extended to where it was longer than the hand. In one swift motion, the creature stabbed the officer in the head, killing him before he could even put up a fight.

Shocked out of their stupor, the rest of the policemen immediately drew their guns and opened fire on the monster.

The bullets all hit their mark, but failed go through the creature. When the bullets made contact, they made an impression on the skin and stayed in place for a second, then harmlessly bounced off the spider-like being. Bullets that were capable of penetrating at least a Beowolf's hide couldn't even be compared to mosquito bites in how ineffective they were against this monster.

The spider monster jumped down from it's perch, landing near another officer. The policeman continued to fire at the creature until he was grabbed by the throat and violently thrown at one of the gathered police cars. He died on impact.

The second closest officer realized that shooting at the monster would be pointless and decided to fight it with hand to hand combat. It took only a few punches for the officer to figure out that he wasn't doing any real damage before the spider creature slashed his throat out, killing him.

This massacre went on until there was only one terrified police officer left, who realized that he would not live through a confrontation against this monster and decided that escape using the police car was the best option.

Unfortunately, the spider monster didn't intend to leave any survivors. As the policeman drove away as fast as he could, the creature shot out a web line at the car. The web broke through the back window and wrapped around the officers neck. Due to the speed that the car was going, the web ended up snapping the police officers neck, killing the him instantly.

His foot was still one the gas pedal, so the car continued to go off into whatever direction it was going. The monster decided to pull the web line and hop on to the moving vehicle, eager to see if there will be even more prey at it's destination.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Alleyway near The Vale Museum of History – 6:50 A.M._

"Uuugh." Crys groaned, sore from having been lying on the ground for who knows how long.

He had woken up just a second ago, lying in an alleyway on his stomach. His glasses were knocked off his face and his bags were a few paces away from him, thankfully unopened.

_'Well it doesn't look like I was robbed.'_ Crys thought as he was getting up and reached out for his glasses. He did a quick glance at them and they weren't even scratched, which he expected. This pair of glasses had been through more than just falling on the floor. It honestly made Crys curious as to what the heck his glasses were made of... he was getting of topic again wasn't he?

_'Really need to stop doing that.'_ Crys sighed as he began to walk towards his bags. _'Did someone knock me out just for shits and giggles? Honestly, people from the city can be such-'_ He halted that thought, his arm stretched out to pick up his clothes bag.

_'Wait a minute, city?'_ Crys did a quick look around at his surroundings. He was indeed in a city, an alleyway to be more precise. _'How the hell am I in the city? I was still in the suburbs when-'_ Memories started to flood his mind. More specifically, the one with the blinding flash of light, which only occurred after he picked up-

_'The prism!'_ Crys rushed towards the duffel bag and immediately began to zip it open. He saw the prism and instead of the vibrant colors that it originally shined, the colors were now dull and lifeless, as if the light was sucked away from the crystal object. But this wasn't what caught his attention.

"Th-the belt..." Crys could barely say the words as he looked at the Complete Selection belt.

Instead of the silver colored belt, four colored buttons, and see through plastic center that he had come to expect, the belt was completely white and had a stone-like texture.

_'Just like-'_ "Gaaah!" Crys was unable to finish that train of thought as he suddenly started to experience a splitting headache. He clutched his head in an attempt to dull the pain. However, as the pain began to increase, his vision was no longer focused on the belt and instead was seeing something... different.

**-****xXx-**

_The area looked like a temple. It had what appeared to be an altar with steps that lead up to it._

_Inside the temple was a warrior. He wore a black body suit and had bright red torso armor that bore a resemblance to muscles, which was adorned with a gold trimmed collar. The shoulder armor and gauntlets were the same vibrant red color, with the gauntlets having gold cuffs and trimmings. The cuffs having red jewels on the sides. The ankles were covered up with golden anklets and like the cuffs had red jewels in the sides, with the knees also having gold armor with a red jewel in the center. The collar and midsection of the torso armor had what appeared to be ancient symbols. _

_Just below the torso armor was a silver belt which was also covered in these ancient characters. It had an oval shaped base with a large red circle shaped gem stone in the center, which was outlined in black. On the left side of the gem stone were two small rectangular buttons. From left to right the buttons were colored purple and green. It was the same on the other side of the gem only the colors were red and blue. There were yellow square-like buttons with the ancient symbols as well but those only appeared to be for decoration. The yellow protrusions continued to the actual belt portion until it met cylinder-like objects that have another ancient character on both sides._

_The most striking part of this warriors attire is the head, which resembled a stag beetle. The mouth plate was silver and resembled the mandibles of a bug. The black helmet had gold trimmings on the bottom. It had rhombus shaped protrusions where the ears should be, most likely to help them fit inside the helmet. The eyes were big and red and seemed to have a compound like appearance, further enhancing the stag beetle look. The eyes were framed by three golden horns, two that were long and curved over the eyes and one that was in the middle that was shorter. In the center was a single, small red gemstone._

_Surrounding the warrior were what appeared to be fusions of both humans and animals. There were three of them and they relentlessly attacked the warrior. But the warrior was able to push them back easily, showing an incredible amount of both skill and experience._

_Then the scene changed, showing the warrior fighting in a similar designed armor with a weapon. The scene changed again, showing another armor with a different weapon. And again, with a different armor and weapon. The events were flashing by so quickly that it was only possible to get glancing views at the warrior now._

_The visions finally settled one a scene of the warrior in the red armor confronting an opponent. The foe was shrouded in darkness but there was enough light to make out its build and size. The warriors opponent was very muscular in its build and it's size is incredibly large, to the point of almost dwarfing the warrior. The aura that this being was emitting was so dark, so malicious, that it would make the weak quake in fear and have even the hardiest of fighters shake and hesitate on taking on this monster._

_But the warrior did not back down. He had been through numerous battles, and has won many of them. He was sicked by the atrocities that these monsters committed and was going to make sure that they never killed another person again, even if he did not win against this creature._

_With his intentions clear, his mind made up, the red warrior charged forward._

_To his final battle._

**-****xXx-**

"G-grk!" The visions had finally stopped. Crys was on his hands and knees, panting hard and sweating bullets, desperately trying to calm down from having events and images forced into his head. It was a couple of minutes later when he was finally able to form a cohesive thought.

"Tha... that was Kuuga..." He was finally able to get out, still reeling from that experience.

_'Thi-this is impossible! Kamen Rider Kuuga's a work of fiction, a T.V. show! It can't be real!'_ Crys wanted to deny it. He wanted to believe that this wasn't real, that it was all just a dream.

But thinking about the circumstances, there really was no other possibility.

The flash of light that came from the prism, teleporting from the suburbs to a city (which, taking another look around, didn't really look at all like any city he's been to before), having a toy turn into a 1:1 exact replica of a T.V. show prop, receiving visions from said prop, and getting a _massive_ headache from those very same visions.

Unless Crys was going insane then he's been teleported to another world where the Arcle has become real.

_'This is starting to sound like one of those crappy Fan Fictions that I read.'_ This is the first thing that Crys was able to calmly think out.

He clearly had trouble getting his priorities straight sometimes.

He reached into his bag and grabbed the now real Arcle. It's heavier weight and stone-like texture were just further confirmation of his current status.

_'Wait a minute.'_ A thought just popped into his head. _'If the Arcle is real then does that mean the-'_

His thought process however, was interrupted when he heard a loud crash outside the alleyway.

_'What the hell was that!?'_ Against his better judgment, Crys decided to see what had caused the loud noise, unconsciously bringing the Arcle with him.

He saw what looked like a museum with a car crashed into it's front gate. Wanting to get a closer look, Crys decided to go to the crash sight to see the damage.

What he saw made his eyes widen and his skin turn pale.

A humanoid spider monster was inside the museum, violently killing any guests or guards that got near it.

_'The Spider Grongi!?'_ Crys' worst fear was realized. If the Spider Grongi existed in this world, then that means the other Grongi also exist here.

"Th-this is really bad." Biggest understatement of the year. Crys was frozen up in fear, watching a monster kill people in real life was nothing like watching people die on T.V.. It was honestly taking everything he had not to throw up there on the spot.

He was even further petrified when the Grongi made direct eye contact with him.

"!" The Spider Grongi proceeded to speak the ancient Grongi Language which Crys barely understood. From his surprised tone and the fact that Crys was able to make out the word "Kuuga", the Grongi was most likely talking about-

If Crys' eyes could get any wider, they would be the size of dinner plates. He Immediately stared at his left had, which was holding the Arcle. _'Why the hell am I still holding this!?'_ With it in hand, Crys was pretty much dead in this blood thirsty monster's sights.

When Crys' eyes went back towards to Grongi, it was already making its way towards him. Crys involuntarily took a step back, feeling more fear than he's ever felt in his life. However, more guards arrived to try and fight the Grongi, distracting it and getting Crys out of his fear induced stupor.

_'Oh man, oh man, oh man, what am I going to do!?'_ Crys was desperately trying to think of a way to get out if this deadly situation. _'If I stay here then I'm dead. And if I try to run away the Grongi will just catch up to me and I'll be killed anyway! The only way I stand a Fighting chance is if-'_ If Crys wasn't in a situation where he could possibly die, he would have face palmed then and there.

_'How can I be so stupid! I've got the ultimate Anti-Grongi weapon in my hand!'_ He took one last glance at the massacre, the Grongi was almost done killing all the guards. "I've got no other choice, looks like it's do or die!" He quickly put the Arcle on his waist, preparing for when the Grongi finally came to him.

However, he forgot one important thing about the belt.

"Gu-GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Pain. Pain of the likes he had never felt before. Crys felt the Arcle burn through his shirts and painfully merge into his body. It burned his insides as it settled and attached itself to his nerves. How could he have forgotten that the Arcle did this! Of course, even bracing himself for the pain wouldn't have done any good had he remembered then.

Crys was still reeling from the pain when he heard the sound of glass shattering. He almost felt his heart stop. He looked up to see the Grongi standing only a few feet away from him.

He had run out of time.

The Spider Grongi ran towards the now panicking young man. The Grongi tried to punch Crys in the head, but by some sort of stroke of luck, he managed to just barely dodge it. Crys tried to retaliate by punching him in the gut, but that only seemed to hurt his own hand and didn't even dent the spider monster.

The Grongi grabbed Crys by the collar of his shirt and threw him farther into the street. The impacted didn't kill him but it was still extremely painful. The spider leaped towards the area where it's prey was. Crys tried to get up but was immediately kicked further away by the Grongi, who was chuckling as it beat him down. It seemed to be taking pleasure in slowly killing it's prey, something that Crys was able to notice in between the beatings.

_'H-he just toying with me...'_ This both angered and frightened him. _'Come on...'_ He finally got up, a bit unsteady on his feet. _'I just need hit him... One good hit to the head!'_ Powered by desperation and adrenaline, Crys charged towards the Grongi with a yell, intent on landing the haymaker to it's head.

What the Spider Grongi didn't expect was the punch to actually hurt.

When his fist made contact with the spider head, Crys' right arm became encased in black, skin-tight material covered in a gauntlet that looked exactly the same as the one he saw in the visions, only all the red was replaced with white. The impact caused the Grongi to reel back in a daze.

Crys could only stare at his arm in distraught horror. _'White!? No, no, NO! Not this form! Not now!'_ He glanced over to the Spider Grongi. It appeared to be recovering from the head blow. "... GAH! SCREW IT! I DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER OPTION NOW!" He screamed in frustration as he charged the Grongi to try and land as many hits he could.

The Spider Grongi was still in a slight daze as he was attacked. With each hit that was landed, more and more armor began to appear on Crys' body until at last, he was fully transformed.

The armor looked like the red armor Crys saw in his visions but was clearly different. For one thing, almost all of the vibrant red was replaced with a stark white. The jewel in the center of the belt was orange instead of red, as were the eyes and the small gemstone on the head. The stag beetle-like horns were also shorter in length. Overall, this set of armor was not very impressive looking when compared to the red armor. That is because this is Kamen Rider Kuuga's Growing Form. The _weakest_ form he could ever achieve.

_'Okay...'_ Crys, now in the Kuuga armor thought. _'I should at least be able to push him back now...'_ All he had to do now was fight back an inhuman, bloodthirsty spider monster... When he himself had never actually fought _anything_ in his entire life...

He would chastise himself for making such a stupid decision if he didn't have the excuse that he would have _died_ had he not thought of something.

But the now transformed Kuuga would worry about that later when he still wasn't under the threat of death.

Kuuga went on the offensive, hoping that the Grongi was still dazed. However, it immediately dodged the strike proceeded to go on the counter attack. Using his slightly improved reflexes, Kuuga was able to dodge some of the spider monster's punches. A few strikes did manage to make contact and though the blows it dealt weren't as painful as before, it still really hurt as Growing Form's armor was still very weak.

Kuuga did managed to score a few more clean hits and was overall gaining a slight advantage. Eventually, the battle came back to the area in front of the museum (which was now evacuated by the remaining guards) and Kuuga managed to knock the Grongi into the museums wall, dazing it again.

_'Okay Crys, think! How can you do big damage to this thing?!'_ Crys was thinking when he remembered what Kuuga did to the Spider Grongi in the T.V. show. He looked around the street and spotted, of all things, an armored truck, which was most likely used to transport artifacts to the museum. _'Perfect!'_

When the Grongi finally stopped seeing stars, it was greeted with the sight of an armored truck going at a fairly fast speed towards him. The truck crashed into the spider, sending him though the museums wall. In the front of the truck was Kuuga, trying to regain his breath after pushing the armored vehicle straight into the monster in an attempt to damage it even further.

_'Damn.'_ Kuuga was panting hard, clearly reaching the limits of his stamina. _'Even if I'm transformed this thing is still heavy.'_ He needed to beat this thing back and quick. He was starting to get really tired. His natural body barely had any muscle, the armor could only do so much in enhancing his body before fatigue sets in.

_'I only need to damage the Grongi enough to make it fall back. Now, how to do that is a whole other-'_

"What the hell!?" An unfamiliar voice interrupted that thought.

"Huh?!"

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_The road to The Museum – Ten Minutes Earlier_

Breakfast had taken longer than Team RWBY thought it would, but they didn't really mind. They enjoyed eating and just hanging out with the other Freshman team, JNPR, even if one of the team members (Nora) could be a bit crazy.

The Huntress'-in-Training arrive to Vale on the shuttle, a small airship, from the school. The museum itself was on the other side of the town but the girls were in no rush to get there. They spent their time talking about school, assignments, and what type of adjustments that could be made to their weapons.

You know, typical teenager stuff.

It was around five minutes later when they came upon a curious sight. There was a police blockade that cut off the road to The Vale Museum of History. Confused as to why the road was closed, Ruby decided to ask the policeman near the blockade what was the deal.

"Um excuse me, sir?" Ruby tried to sound as polite as possible to the law enforcement officer.

"Hm? Oh hello, you lot must be curious as to why a blockade has been set up" The officer quickly figure out the reason why the girl wanted to ask a question, having done so numerous times already.

All four girls nodded their heads.

"Well, I don't know the specifics, but somethings been terrorizing the area around the museum."

"What?" This piece of info caught Blake's attention. "Who's terrorizing the museum?" Blake didn't voice it, but she sincerely hoped it wasn't the White Fang.

"Like I said, I don't know the specifics, but what I do know is that whatever's causing all this trouble can create giant spider webs..." The officer had a troubled expression on his face. "... From those weapons I can tell you lot are Huntress'-in-Training. I'm only telling you this piece of info because of that." He made a hand motion for them to come closer. The girls were now worried. What type of information would cause the officer to want to discretely talk about it.

"The department and me personally think a Grimm sneaked into the city." He spoke to the four in a hushed tone.

"WHAT!?" The team couldn't help but scream in shock. A Grimm? In the city?!

"Ssshhhhh! Not so loud!" The officer loudly whispered to them. He was glad that there wasn't anyone else around otherwise they would have caused a scene.

"But that's impossible!" Weiss replied, now making sure to lower her voice. "Vales natural terrain make it impossible for any Grimm to get into the city!"

"I want to believe that too ma'am," The police officer now had a troubled expression on his face. "But with the giant spider web and with how brutally some of my fellow officers were killed, me and the dept. don't really have any other theories as to what's causing this." He shook his head to try and dispel the images of the brutalized dead bodies.

"But surely someone had to have seen it. Weren't there any survivors?" Blake asked, shocked that such a thing could happen.

"There were survivors, but they either didn't see the Grimm or are too traumatized to even speak. The worst part is that the Hunter we contacted is still on his way here. We may have to just call another Hunter from Beacon just to solve this."

Upon hearing this, Ruby immediately spoke up and said, "We can take care of the Grimm!"

"Huh!?" The other girls were surprised that Ruby offered their service to the officer.

"What!? Are you sure? This thing's pretty tough, and you're all still in-Training!" While the officer wanted the Grimm dead, he didn't want to endanger the lives of four teenage girls.

"Hey, you need a quick fix! And what one Hunter can do the rest of my team can do just as good!" Ruby replied in a confident tone. And it was true. Most teams are capable of doing missions that a single experience Hunter could do easily.

"Hmmm..." The officer was seriously considering their proposal. They wouldn't be in Beacon Academy if they weren't good. And it would make sure that no one else would have to die."... Alright, if you think you're up to it, I'll let you go ahead. I'll just tell my superiors that four incredibly stubborn Huntress'-in-Training didn't listen to me and went ahead despite my warnings." The officer smirked a he stood aside to let the four through.

"All right!" Ruby was happy that she got the policeman to get them though. And were eager to help in any way they could too. There was no way a Grimm was going to make trouble in their city and get away with it.

"Thanks Mr..." Ruby realized that she never got the officers name.

"Just call me Officer Hullum." The now identified officer replied with a smile.

"Hullum?" Yang repeated the name while raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a family name." The Officer waved his hand in a forward motion. "Now get going!"

"Right! Thanks Officer Hullum!" Ruby and the rest of the team then ran towards the direction of the museum, determined to stop the creature of darkness.

It took a few minutes for them to arrive at the museum. The front of the museum was wrecked due to a police car that had crashed into the front doors.

However, while they expected to see that, they did not expect to see a white, stag beetle man ram an armored truck into a green, spider man and crash it into the museums wall.

The girls were... well dumbfounded. Here they come to fight a Grimm and they step into a scene that wouldn't look unfamiliar in a Saturday morning kids show.

"What the hell!?" Yang was the first person to break the silence, saying what was on every one elses mind.

"Huh?!" The bug man spoke and turned around to face the girls.

**-****xXx-**

_Present time_

While Crys was fighting against the Spider Grongi, he had a stray thought that nothing could be weirder than this. I mean, he was fighting a monster from a Japanese kids show by using an item that used to be a toy but was made real by an apparently magical crystal prism. Once you get that weird, there's really no were else to go but back down to normal. But he was wrong. Oh so very wrong.

When he heard the voice he turned around expecting one, maybe two civilians that wandered to the area. He was going to tell them to go away, that it wasn't safe here. That is until he actually saw them.

There were four of them.

They were all girls.

They were all very pretty girls.

They were all very pretty girls with dangerous looking weapons.

_'Wait, what.'_

The first girl he noticed resembled a badass version of little red riding hood. The weapon she was holding was a huge red and black scythe, so large that Crys wondered how she was holding it so easily. It looked intricate, as in that it was made up of a lot of parts and it looked like it was meant to fold. And-was that a sniper rifle barrel at the tip?

The second girl was decked out in white and light-blue, heck even her hair was white. Her weapon was a rapier with what looks like a revolver chamber as a hilt. The individual chambers were filled with what appeared to be different colored... um... Actually, Crys can't really tell what the chambers are filled with.

The third girl was dressed in black and white and... Crys didn't know why, but she reminded him of a cat. It's probably because of the bow on the top of her head. She actually has two weapons. The first is what looks like a black katana strapped on the top of a black pistol. It looks as though the katana blade has a mechanism that makes it fold backward. The second weapon she had looked like a large, black cleaver with it's handle inside the blade. Though looking closely, the cleaver is actually a sheath for the katana.

The last girl has long, vibrant yellow hair and for her age (which Crys guessed was the same age as him, 17) she has rather large... um... tracks of land... Anyway, her weapons are a pair of yellow gauntlets that also seemed to be a combination of shotguns, if the large red shells are any indication.

Crys, however, didn't have time to ogle at the awesome looking weapons or the pretty girls due to said weapons pointing in his general direction by said girls.

"Gah!" Crys in Kuuga's armor immediately raised his hands in a non-threatening manner. He doesn't know how good Growing Form is at taking bullets (especially sniper and shotgun rounds) but he'd rather not find out.

"O-okay," Kuuga spoke, slightly surprising the four Huntress'-in-Training. They didn't expect something so insect looking to speak their language. "I-I know this looks bad, b-but there's a perfectly good explanation for all of this."

"So you can explain why you rammed that spider guy into the museum using an armored truck?" Yang was skeptical. For all they knew, this thing might have been killing people too.

"Yes! Umm..." Kuuga was trying to figure out how to word the next sentence to make sure they clearly understood him and didn't shoot him dead on sight. "... He was tryng to kill me and I didn't want to die." _'… A grade delivery there Crysy! Hope you like being used as target practice!'_

"Hmm..." Weiss was still distrustful of this creature. While it didn't seem to be lying, she could tell that it was hiding something as well.

Blake, however, wasn't paying attention to the conversation. Her eyes were seemingly glued onto the belt the creature was wearing. _'That belt is the same as the one in the newspaper article.'_ Though it now has more color as opposed to looking like stone, it was unmistakable as one of the ancient artifacts that was just recently discovered._ 'Could this all be connected to those ruins that were uncovered?'_ When Blake gets the chance, she wants to ask this bug man if he knows anything about the artifacts, by force if need be.

"Hey now, let's just all calm down." Ruby was trying to be the voice of reason. "If he wanted to attack us he would have done it by now." She did bring up a good point, so far the bug man hadn't done anything that could be considered hostile (bar ramming a spider man into a wall with an armored truck). The others could see Ruby's point, and decided to at least lower their weapons and see what the bug man had to say.

Kuuga sighed in relief. "Thanks." This was the third time Crys thought he was going to die today. Seriously, tell him that this going to happen to him earlier in the day and he'd probably think you were high.

"No problem. Now, you think you could answer some questions we have? I'm pretty sure we all have at least one question." Blake was appreciative that Ruby was going the diplomatic route. Maybe now she could ask the bug man just what the heck was going on.

"Um, sure. I'll answer what I can." Crys couldn't help but find this situation just a little bit odd. One minute this girl was pointing a sniper scythe at him and now she was politely asking him questions. Life's just weird like that he guessed.

"Okay, first, can you tell us your name?" Ruby figured it wouldn't be polite to just keep calling this guy bug man, especially since they're getting to know him.

"My name?" _'Hmm... I can't really use my real name. Have to at least try and have some semblance of a secret identity. Wait, what am I thinking. I'll just use the armors name.'_ "Alright, my name is-"

But before Kuuga could tell the girls his name, one of the windows of the museum broke open and revealed the Spider Grongi, screaming in rage. He did a charging tackle and knocked Kuuga to the ground while it got on top of him. This caused the girls eyes to widen at both the monster's reappearance and how quick it was able to do this.

_'Crap! How did I forget about this guy!?"_ The Grongi extended it's right wrist claws and attempted to stab Kuuga in the face. But Kuuga was just a bit quicker, and managed to grab the arm just before it made contact.

It was a struggle just to keep the claws away from his face. Not only was the Grongi stronger than him, but Kuuga was still worn out from the previous skirmish and hadn't had a chance to completely rest up.

Kuuga was about to loss his grip when the spider was hit by gun fire. It didn't do any damage but the Gurongi was distracted long enough for Kuuga to kick him off his body.

Kuuga glanced over to the girls and saw that it was the cat-like girl that saved him. He gave the girl a quick thanks and proceeded to charge at the monster, intending to land another haymaker. Unfortunately, the Grongi saw the obviously choreographed attack and dodged it. It was about to counterattack when sniper rounds started to pelt him, causing sparks to fly off his body and make him stagger backwards.

Ruby was glad Crescent Rose's bullets were at least able to do some damage. Luckily they were of a higher caliber than Blake's ammunition.

The bullets continued to hit their mark. The Spider Grongi was beginning to become greatly annoyed by the red pest, so he decided to fire a web line at Ruby once she stopped firing to reload. It wrapped around both her and Crescent Rose and when it completely ensnared her she was unable to move.

"Gah!" The webbing was very tight. Ruby struggled against the web line but it proved futile. In fact, it only seemed to make the webbing tighter!

"Ruby!" Yang immediately went to work trying get her sister out of the spiders web. The Grongi would have none of that and pulled on the web line, flinging Ruby towards the predator.

"No!" Yang reached out in an attempt to try and grab the web line, but was a second to late. Her sister was a sitting duck wrapped around like that, and was being pulled towards an obviously murderous spider monster!

Luckily, before Ruby could reach her destination, Blake cut the web line using the cleaver of Gambol Shroud. "So you were the one terrorizing this section of the city." Blake had figured out that this spider creature was the one responsible for all the killings as soon as it attacked the bug man. It shooting out webbing was just further confirmation.

The Spider Grongi's response was in the Ancient Grongi Language.

"Do you have any idea what this thing is saying?!" Weiss directed her question towards the bug man.

"Don't look at me, I don't speak long dead ancient language!" Kuuga replied, hoping to get his second wind. "And why do you think I would know?

"I think Weiss was thinking that with you both being bugs you would have some sort of understanding with each other." Yang answered, yanking on the webbing that held Ruby. The blonde haired girl wasn't going to leave her sister in such a vulnerable position. She was wearing it down, but it looked like it would still take a while to get Ruby out of the web.

"Okay, first of all, this is just armor and not what I actually look like. Second of all, I'm a stag beetle, he's a spider! We're not even in the same species!" Crys hated these types of semantics. Just because they're in the same animal kingdom doesn't make insects and arachnids the same thing!

Blake was just left with more questions than before. _'Long dead ancient language? Just how old is this creature?'_ She had even more questions about how the bug man is actually just some guy who's wearing bug armor. Although for some reason the main question that kepted popping up in her head was: _'Why a Stag Beetle?'_

However, that thought process would have to wait until later as the Grongi charged towards the three unoccupied fighters. The Spider Grongi extended both of it's wrist claws to make it's strikes more lethal. It began to slash at it's prey, making sure to strike vital areas, but ended up with most of it's attacks blocked or parried by Weiss and Blake. Weiss tried to thrust and jab at the beast with Myrtenaster but none of her attacks penetrated the skin. While using her Fire Dust setting seemed to do more damage, it only created sparks on impact and still failed to penetrate. Her attacks simply lacked the force to do any real damage.

Blake was having the same problem as Weiss, though her sword strikes were naturally more powerful, she still couldn't break through the spider monster's skin. She had the idea of slashing the same area over and over again in order to wear it down to finally make it bleed. Unfortunately, no matter how many times or how fast Blake hit the same area no cut would be made. It was as if the creature was healing faster than she could attack.

Both girls were doing damage, but it wasn't lasting long enough for either of them to take full advantage of the situation.

But the one doing the worst overall, was Kuuga. All of his attacks were sloppy and it was only due to Weiss and Blake's assistance that he was even able to land any hits. While the pair of Huntress'-in-Training were able to block and dodge the claw slashes Kuuga was only able to just barely dodge most of the attacks. That's where his inexperience and exhaustion were really taking its toll on him, as he was progressively getting hit more and more often.

After that last attack, both sides backed way from each other. The girls were starting to get out of breath and Kuuga was desperately gasping for air. The Spider Grongi was also showing signs of tiring, but to nowhere near the extent as the others.

The Grongi spoke once more in it's ancient tongue, and although no one understood what it said, they were able to get the gist of it due to it's mocking tone and chuckle.

"H... He's mocking... us..." Kuuga could barely speak. He was practically focusing on only breathing and staying conscious.

"Don't let him get to you. We need to have clear heads if we're to get through this." Weiss told the bug armor man. Though in truth she was concealing her own annoyance at being talked down to, even if she couldn't understand what was said to her.

"Are you alright?" Blake asked the white combatant. It was clear to everyone fighting that he was the least experienced fighter there. He was the only one other than the creature who had been taking hits and his exhaustion was evident with his posture and breathing pattern.

She didn't know if he was brave for still fighting on in this condition or stupid.

Probably both.

"Ye... yeah... I... just... just need to catch my... second wind is all..." Of course he was lying through his teeth. The only reason why Kuuga hasn't collapsed yet was because of the combination of adrenaline pumping through his blood and whatever the Arcle was doing to his body.

_'If we keep going at this rate, we're not gonna live through this...'_ The situation wasn't getting any better with the way they were fighting either. They're all eventually going to tire out while the Spider Grongi will still have enough energy to take them out. They need to at least be able to make a large clean cut. That will create an opening that could lead to victory. But neither of them have enough strength to do so. How will they be able to-

"Hiyaaaahh!" A blonde blur flew past them and landed a clean left hook on the face of the monster. It was Yang, and thanks to the force of the blow along with her shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica, she ended up launching the spider a good few feet away.

"That was for binding my sister you creep!" Yang yelled at the dazed enemy, happy that she finally got to participate in the fight.

_'Wha-? Oh yeah. She was helping that red riding hood girl get out of the web line. Wait, if she's fighting now, then that means-'_

Kuuga's thought process was indeed correct as Ruby walked towards her teammates.

"Everyone, I think I have a plan that'll finally defeat that guy!" Ruby spoke with confidence in her voice. She thought-no, she knew that they could win this.

"At this point, any plan would be good now." Weiss was glad that Ruby was finally free. And now that she came up with a plan, victory should be in the bag.

"I'm all ears." Blake was curious to know what the plan was and eager to finally end this.

"I already told Yang her part of the plan, here's how it'll- Oh!" She turned towards Kuuga, honestly surprising the white clad fighter. "I'll need your help too."She told him with a determined expression.

Her? Need his help? Doesn't she see how much of dead weight he is right now? He'll just be a hindrance to whatever she's planning on doing.

But... he should at least hear her out. "What... did ya have in mind?"

**-xXx-**

Zu-Gumun-Ba was annoyed.

Don't get him wrong. He was actually enjoying the fight up until the yellow haired female punched him in the face. He enjoyed it when his prey fought back, no matter how futile their struggle was. But that punch _really_ hurt. The combined power of her fists momentum and the explosive power of the gauntlets had actually caused a level of pain he hadn't felt since before he reawakened, back when the Linto Tribe was much smaller. He was going to make sure that girl suffered a painful death.

And speak of the devil, there she was.

She had a cocky smirk as she began to walk towards the Grongi. She was only there for a second before she leaped forward in an attempt to punch him in the face again.

Did she think he was stupid? He has survived through numerous battles, one with the Original Kuuga, he would not fall for the same trick twice.

He dodged the punch and was prepared to stab her with his claws when he felt a hard force on his chest. He realized that she never intended to punch him in the face again and used the action to hide her knee jabbing into his torso.

The female was smarter than she seemed.

Zu-Gumun-Ba decided to go on the offensive this time. Charging towards the female warrior with his claws extended, the predator fully intended to slash her throat. But the female warrior was elusive. She was able to dodge and block all of his blows and was even able to counterattack on occasion.

It became annoying to the point that the spider just decided to jump back and shoot a web line at her.

However, before the webbing even reached her, it was slashed away be the black haired female. He continued to shoot web lines in a vain attempt to at least ensnare some part of their bodies. Just as one of the webbing's was about to attach to the black females leg, it was frozen over, confusing the Grongi.

He was distracted enough for him not to notice the white haired female slash his back with her sword that was shrouded in flames.

The black and white females proceeded to attack Zu-Gumun-Ba together again. Had they learned nothing from earlier. They'll only make themselves easier to kill later. None of their attacks could penetrate his hide, they're only wasting their time.

However, they were fighting differently than before. Instead of attacking from all directions they were focusing on attacking his sides and arms, most likely to try and disarm him. He felt like laughing at there attempts at a strategy. You'd think after how many attempts they would-

His thoughts were painfully interrupted when he felt an incredible force slam into his stomach, forcing all the air out of his lungs. He glanced downward to see the yellow female with her fist embed into his gut. So that was their plan. Keep his arms occupied so that he wouldn't be able to protect his front. Smart, but only a temporary way of piling on damage. They still had no way of penetrating his ski-

"ORYAAAAHH!"

"GRAAAAAAAAAHH!." Pain. Massive amounts of pain erupted from his head. Zu-Gumun-Ba roared as he clutched his head in attempt to ward off the incredible headache. The White Kuuga. The White Kuuga used his signature attack on his head while he was vulnerable. It wasn't powerful enough to instantly kill him, but it did carry enough force to cause him turmoil and cloud his vision.

Had Zu-Gumun-Ba's head not been swimming, he would have seen the red female rush towards him, readying her scythe to strike.

**-xXx-**

Ruby, the red riding hood girls plan was ingenious.

Crescent Rose, her sniper scythe, was just the thing we needed to win this battle.

The first part of the plan involved having Yang, the blond, build some distance between Ruby and the Spider Grongi. She would then stall for time as he explained her plan to her teammates and Kuuga.

The second part involved Weiss, white hair, and Blake, cat girl, making sure the Grongi's arms were occupied so he couldn't block part three.

The third part had Yang sucker punch the spider in the gut. Leaving him opened for part four.

The fourth part involved Crys attaching his head with a strong attack to daze. Ruby was lucky that he had an attack just for the occasion. The Growing Kick is weak, but it delivered enough force to give the monster the biggest headache he's ever had.

And now the final part of the plan. It had Ruby rush towards the Grongi using her super speed (which was a shock to find out that she had) to build an incredible amount of momentum. She would then use the recoil outputted from her weapon. The combined power of the momentum and recoil would create enough force to make a clean cut across the monster's chest.

The plan went off without a hitch.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The Spider Grongi cried out in agony as it's torso was sliced open. The wound was deep, showering the floor with it's crimson liquid.

Ruby had jumped back so as not to be sprayed by the bleeding creature. The Grongi was clutching his chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Everyone could see that the gash was healing, but at a slow rate.

"This thing's still alive!?" Yang couldn't help but scream in frustration. Seriously, most things died when they get slashed that deeply in the chest.

The Grongi was panting hard, and began speaking in his ancient tongue. Judging from it's tone, it was extremely angry. It pointed towards Ruby, it's voice dripping with hatred. It did the same thing towards the white warrior, with the others noticing it putting emphasis on the word, "Kuuga."

The Spider Grongi shot a bloody web line towards the closest building to it, and immediately pulled the lining to fling himself away.

"What th- HEY! Get back here you coward!" Yang yelled out, but it was already to late. The creature was gone.

Everyone stared off to where the spider monster had swung away. The silence was eventually broken by the sound of footsteps walking away from them. Everyone's eyes settled onto the white bug man.

"Hey, wait!" Ruby called out to the bug man. He turned his head to face the young girl. "Um... I just wanted to say thanks for helping us back there."

"Huh? Oh... You don't have to thank me for anything. I was kinda dead weight back there." Crys admitted to Ruby. He was pretty sure that the only reason he survived the confrontation with the Spider Grongi was because Ruby and her teammates intervened.

"That's not true!" Ruby told the armor clad warrior.

"It's not?" Yang whispered, but was immediately elbowed by Blake.

"We couldn't have had a guaranteed win if you weren't here. Sure you may be rough around the edges when it comes to fighting, but we don't all start out great!" Ruby finished her explanation. This was what she honestly thought. He shouldn't be so hard on himself when he showed some ability to be a capable fighter.

Crys however, thought that she was just trying to be polite, but appreciated the gesture. "... Thanks for that." He then turned back around and leaped onto one of the shorter buildings and continued to leap from the building to building until he was out of sight.

Ruby looked on at the direction Kuuga had leaped away. "...GAH!" She screamed out and clasped her head with both hands. "I forgot to ask for his name!"

"Really? That's what you're worried about?" Weiss looked at her leader in exasperation. She was tired after the long fight. She was also frustrated with the outcome. Not only had the beast escaped but they had only managed to deliver one real wound on its body. None of her attacks did any lasting damage to it either, even with enhancing Myrtenaster with Dust. She was going to have to do some serious training when she got back to Beacon.

Blake too, was frustrated at herself, but mostly for a different reason. She just realized that she had forgotten to ask the white combatant her questions. She was left with many of them. _'Who are you?'_,_ 'What was that thing?'_,_ 'Why are you wearing that ancient relic'_, just to name a few. She sighed. Blake just had to hope that they met the stag beetle fighter again soon.

Yang was angry at the monster. It had the nerve to try and kill her sister and just run away before they finished the fight? If Yang knew that she didn't have a high chance of beating that thing alone, she would have given chase so she could beat that spider's face in.

And the worst part? The girls didn't even get to do what they set out for in the first place. And judging by the museums current condition, they wouldn't be able to make a visit any time soon.

Blake sighed again. "I'll go tell Officer Hullum what happened. You three should stay here just in case anything else happens here." She suggested. The others agreed and she went off, leaving the rest of the girls minds to linger on today's events.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Alleyway near The Vale Museum of History – One minute later_

Crys landed in the alleyway that had his bags, which were thankfully still there. He canceled his transformation and got rid of the now ruined shirts in a nearby trash can. He reached into his clothes bag, put on one of his spare shirts, and took off.

He was running on fumes now. Crys needed to find a place to safely rest before he passed out.

Thankfully, he only needed to stagger a few blocks before he came across a decent looking motel. Crys made himself to look as presentable as he possibly could at the moment before heading in.

The counter was being run by a woman, but Crys was too tired at this point to make out her age. "Welcome to the Solatium Motel, how may I help you today?" She asked the young man in a practiced tone of voice.

"Yes..." Black spots were starting to speckle Crys' vision. "I'd... like a room I... plan on staying in this city for... a few days..." It was starting to become a chore to just remain standing. His feet felt like lead.

"Certainly sir, that shouldn't be a prob... Um, sir? Are you feeling alright?" The receptionist asked him. She was noticing how he was swaying as if a gust of wind could knock him down.

"I-I'm fine." Crys lied. "I'm just... really tired is all." _'Another huge understatement from Crys Cobolt everybody!'_

"Well... okay, if you say so." If the young man was just tired, then resting in a bed should fix that problem. "You're room 104." The receptionist told him as she handed him the rooms keycard.

"Thanks." Crys grabbed the keycard and made haste to the room. When he got there, he made sure to open the door and place the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door handle before closing it.

He collapsed on the bed. Even though it wasn't even noon, Crys Cobolt immediately fell into the deepest sleep he's ever had in his life.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Police station – Five minutes later_

"You did what!?" A police inspector yelled into his Scroll.

After hearing the reply on the other end, the inspector sighed. "Hullum, while you're actions did lead to the monster not taking anymore lives, you should've at least run it by me before going ahead with it.

The now identified Officer Hullum apologized. The inspector sighed again before replying, "It's fine. Just make sure you get those witness reports from those Huntress'-in-Training. That clear?"

Officer Hullum made an affirmative response and hung up. The inspector sat down behind the desk of his office, his mind deep in thought.

They had lost ten men today, and that's not even counting the civilian casualties. It was all by a monster that wasn't a Grimm either.

Where had this creature come from? Why was it killing people? What was it's ulterior motive? And who was this bug man that helped the Huntress'-in-Training fight it back? None of these questions were going to be solved with him just sitting there.

It looked like Police Inspector Burns had a lot of work on his hands.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Unknown location – Unspecified time_

Zu-Gumun-Ba was furious.

Not only was his Gegeru stopped by the White Kuuga, but he was wounded by a Linto girl. _A Linto girl_ of all things! His wound still hasn't completely healed either, and it was definitely going to scar over.

A cocky voice spoke to him in his native tongue.

He turned to see the figure shrouded in darkness but he knew who it was.

The figure continued to speak, telling Gumun how pathetic it was for him to to retreat because of a little Linto girl. Another voice agreed with that statement and added how it was even more pathetic for him to suffer such a wound at he hands of said girl. Both voices chuckled at the wounded Grongi.

Gumun angrily replied that if it wasn't for Kuuga, the girl wouldn't have even gotten that hit in.

This caused the other to close their mouths in surprise.

Kuuga?! How was this possible? They had all thought that Daguva had destroyed the Arcle.

Silence over took the group. A raspy voice asked what they were going to do now.

A new voice, clearly female, calmly replied that they will continue with the Gegeru, and that Kuuga will not stop them. He will simply add to the challenge and that whoever kills him will truly be worthy of ascending through the ranks. She then turned her attention to the one who asked the question, saying that his turn to participate was next. The owner of the raspy voice couldn't help but be excited by the prospect of both killing Linto and being the next one to play.

Zu-Gumun-Ba however, still had his mind on the red Linto girl. He will not take this embarrassment lying down. He will have his revenge on her.

Both the girl, and Kuuga.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_B__eacon Academy – 12:00 P.M._

High up in the office inside Beacon Academy's clock tower, a man was deep in thought.

He is a middle-aged man with tousled gray hair and thin brown eyes. He wears shaded glass spectacles and a dark-green scarf with a small, purple, cross-shaped emblem on it. He is wearing an unzipped black suit over a black-buttoned vest, with a green undershirt underneath. Black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants adorn his legs and feet. This is the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin.

It was after Team RWBY had arrived back from Vale and informed him on what happened that he decided to assist in the investigation of the monster attack by looking for any video footage he could find. It certainly wasn't a Grimm that was for sure, but that still didn't explain what it was.

He was watching the piece of footage where the white armored combatant rammed the armored truck into the spider beast. That was another questioned he wanted answered. Who was this unknown fighter? He was fighting the hostile creature before Team RWBY arrived and even assisted them when the team decided to engage the beast. Judging from the interactions with the girls and whatever clear enough audio files he could find, Ozpin could tell that the combatant meant no harm and was only fighting out of self preservation.

That brought another thing about the white armored combatant to Ozpin's attention, his fighting. The combatant was inexperienced, which was obvious. All of his attacks were easily visible before they even made contact and his breathing became heavily labored as the battle went on. This made it clear to the headmaster that the combatant had never fought before and must have been riding on his second wind when he made his exit.

Ozpin decided to rewind the footage of the front of the museum to see where this fighter came from when something caught his attention.

Right after the monster crashed the police car a young man appeared, most likely to see what was going on. From what the headmaster could see, the young man was horrified by the monster killing the people inside the museum. As the monster made his way towards the young man, he put in a stone colored belt before screaming in pain as it was absorbed into his body.

It was the same belt that the white combatant wore. And the same belt that he saw in the newspaper article on the ancient artifacts.

Ozpin tried to see if he could find a camera that had a clear shot at he young man's face, but they were either obstructed by something or were of so low quality that his face was nothing put pixels.

The headmaster sighed as he took a sip of his coffee. He wouldn't tell the police. At least not yet. He wanted to find the young man first and find out what his intentions were before deciding if he needed to be put away somewhere secure. In the meantime all he could do now was search, wait, and be on high alert.

Ozpin stood up from his chair with his coffee in hand and walked towards his offices large window, gazing out at the academy's populous as they continued going about their business, none the wiser of what was happening. The professor knew this would not last by tomorrow.

He had the feeling that there would be only more trouble to come.

**-xXx-**

**Final Note:**

**So, what did you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Make sure to leave any constructive criticisms and/or questions you have in the in the review section.**

**Before I sign off, I****'d**** like to give some ****thanks**** to some sites and people that helped me out while writing this:**

**The RWBY Wiki, for all of its ****info and**** character descriptions. Without it, I wouldn't know how to describe half of the things these people were wearing.**

**The Kamen Rider Wiki, for its**** descriptions on the Grongi and ****info on**** how weak Growing Form is.**

**My dad, for reading this and letting me know if it was at least presentable.**

**Tannin, real life best friend, fellow writer, and the one who edited and co-wrote the first section of this story! Look him up on this site when you get the chance. He hasn't written anything here yet but trust me, he can produce much higher quality work then I can by myself.**

**And ****of course, you for reading this! Seriously, you're all great people for actually slogging through this thing and bothering to comment on it.**

**Just a heads up though. Since Winter Break is almost over, I won't be able to update this story a whole lot because of school. The least I can promise you all is monthly updates and even then it's iffy. I hope you understand.**

**Until we meet again readers, this has been The Aeon Offspring,**** and t****hank you ****very much**** for your time.**

**Signing Off.**


	2. Chapter 2: Henshin

**Greetings to all who have come here. I am The Aeon Offspring, and welcome to Chapter 2 of Remnants of a Forgotten Past!**

**I'd like to do a few things before we start the story. Though knowing you guys, you've probably skipped this section... hrm.**

**The first thing I'd like to do is dedicate this chapter to the creator of RWBY Monty Oum, who tragically died on February 1st, 2015. My heart reaches out to friends and family that were close to him.**

**May he rest in peace and stay awesome in whatever afterlife has greeted him.**

**The second thing I'd like to do is recommend some music for you guys to listen to while reading this. I'm doing this now because I know there are some people (including me) who don't like having the story be put on hold even for just a second just because you want to set the mood and look for the music track the author recommended... Kinda went on a rant there didn't I.**

**Well whatever, here are the recommendations for today:**

**Kamen Rider Kuuga OST 1: Senshi**

_**This is a perfect track for when you want to have a blood pumping fight.**_

**Kamen Rider Kuuga OST 2: Kairan**

_**Great for dramatic battles. Just when you think the hero's gonna lose, the end part of the music plays and he wins by a hair. Fantastic.**_

**The third thing I wanted to do was answer some questions from the review section. I'll answer either stand out or frequently asked questions from there. If I didn't address you specifically then someone either already asked you're question or the answer would have contained spoilers. Sorry.**

**Alrighty then, let's get started.**

**Stardrago: When Daguva ripped the Arcle off the Original Kuuga in this world, he also ended up destroying the Amadam, the gemstone on the center of the belt, and the internal mechanisms that allowed the user to transform. The Gouram's still around, but is still buried under all the ruble in the ruins and will need to be excavated before it becomes of any use. As for Rising Ultimate Form... well, who knows. This worlds path was already changed by the Grongi's reawakening and Crys' appearance, so who knows how the final battle will turn out. These may not be the exact answers to your questions, but I hope they'll be sufficient.**

**Nero Angelo Sparda: In terms of the timeline, the beginning of the story takes during Volume 1, after "The Badge and The Burden" but before "Jaunedice". I've read a few stories that have the protagonist appear either before or during the Initiation and I just felt like changing things up for the sake of variety.**

**Xenoguyver: Pairings... That is a good question. I'll definitely keep it open for the possibility of having Crys end up in a relationship but I want it to happen naturally. If one of the girls does end up falling for our nerdy protagonist, it will definitely be in the _much_ later chapters. And while I may find them humorous, there will be no harem. Look for them in another fic. You pervs.**

**New Universe Returns: Sorry, but I don't think I'll be doing any story requests in the foreseeable future.**

**The last thing I wanted to do is actually have my editor/co-author/beta reader/better writer than me, Tannin, say a few words. You may remember me mentioning him as the one who helped write the first section of this stories first chapter. He's gonna start having a bigger influence in this story from here on out. All of his speech will be in [brackets] just so you know.**

**[Hello, Tannin here. I'm glad that most, if not all of you are enjoying this story, as I've had a lot of fun writing the first section. I'll be trying my best to have a bit more of an impact on the story as well, so you may notice a few minute differences in the writing style. Things like being more detailed in descriptions of what's going on or how things look. Also prettier speech, because variety. I'll try my best to help keep the seriousness of Kuuga as well as keeping the light-heartedness of RWBY. That's about it, so yeah.]**

**Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, let's get started shall we?**

**Kamen Rider Kuuga is ****a creation ****of**** and**** owned by ****Shotaro Ishinomori ****and the Toei Company.**

**RWBY ****is**** a creation ****of ****Monty Oum ****and ****is produced ****by**** Rooster Teeth Productions.**

**This story is written for entertainment purposes. Please support the official release.**

**-xXx-**

Crys Cobolt woke up with a loud yawn. "AAAaaaww... geez, what did I do last night?" He asked himself as he got out of bed. He apparently did a lot of physical work in the convention yesterday since he was still feeling relatively tired, even after a full night's sleep.

"Huh?" That's weird, he was still wearing his clothes, only bothering to take off the button up shirt. he really didn't bother to change into his night wear? He must have been even more exhausted then he thought if he just collapsed in the bed like that.

He recalled having the strangest dream last night, where he was teleported into another world by a prism, became Kamen Rider Kuuga, and fought the Spider Grongi along side a group of very pretty girls with the most badass weapons he'd ever seen.

… Thinking about how those two subjects had somehow combined, Crys was starting to consider cutting down on the magical girl anime.

_*sniff**sniff* 'Yup, I definitely didn't shower last night.'_ While he understood that it couldn't be helped, Crys was still slightly disgusted with himself for not showering after coming back from a _convention_.

_'Strange. I always thought that con smell had the scent of sweaty pits and expired junk food, not just sweat.'_ While he still smelled, Crys wasn't covering his nose to keep from becoming light headed. Weird.

_'Might as well see what's going on today before I go shower.' _ Crys decided, as he grabbed the remote control to the T.V. and pressed the power button.

The screen flashed on. "This is Cyril Ian from the Vale News Network." _'The what?'_ Crys had never heard of this station. And what the heck was Vale?

"We're here in front of The Vale Museum of History," the camera panned to the wrecked front of the museum building. The glass doors were destroyed and the wall near the doors had a hole in it, as if a truck had crashed... into... it...

Crys had completely stopped listening to the news broadcast. The remote slipped from his hand and he stared at the screen, his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

_'Oh, shit.'_

**-xXx-**

**Kuuga: Remnants of a Forgotten Past**

**-xXx-**

**Chapter 2: Henshin**

_Vale_

_Solatium Motel – 7:20 A.M._

"It... really wasn't a dream..." Crys could only say this in shock as he looked at his reflection in the mirror, the Arcle manifested around his waist. It was just further confirmation that he was no longer on Earth.

_'How. How did this happen!'_ Seriously, all Crys wanted to do was to go to a convention, have some fun, and buy some cool anime and video game shit. Instead, he ends up in a situation were he almost died more times than he'd ever want to.

Crys walked to his bag, picked it up, and put it on the bed. He unzipped the bag and reached into it, pulling out the cause of all his current troubles.

The Prism.

It's colors were still as dull and lifeless as it was when he came into this world. _'This is all your fault.'_ It seemed a bit immature to hold a grudge against an inanimate object but Crys didn't care. It was ultimately because of this thing that he came here, that he almost died more times in a single day than most normal people would in their entire lives.

It was because of The Prism that he will never be able to get back home.

_'No! Come on Crys, you can't think like that!'_ He shook his head to dispel those pessimistic thoughts. _'If it could teleport you here then there has to be a way to get The Prism to get me back home!'_

This was the only hope Crys had on getting out of this mess. He had to find a way to get The Prism to teleport him back to Earth.

The only issue now was how to do that.

Crys sighed in frustration as he shoved The Prism back into the bag. However, something else in the bag caught his eye. When he pulled the objects out he was very surprised.

The objects in his hands reminded him of credit cards. They came in different colors though most of them were the same. There was a lot of them and Crys was pretty sure it was around the same amount as the cash he brought with him. _'Are these cards this worlds currency? Why is it here instead of my cash?'_ As soon as Crys thought it, he came up with an answer.

Kamen Rider Decade had taught Crys that when someone enters a foreign world, the world itself changes aspects of a person so that they don't upset the natural balance. Apparently the same thing had happened to Crys as all of his money had changed into this worlds equivalent.

_'Well that's sure as hell convenient.'_ Crys thought in a mocking tone. He still wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though. With how much money he has on him he should be able to stay in this motel for at least a couple of weeks before needing to find a job.

_'Well, if I'm gonna be staying in this world for a while, then I should go find out as much about this place as I can.'_ Unlike Decade, Crys' mind wasn't filled with info on what this place was called or who were the important people he should watch out for. As soon as he was finished with his shower, he was heading to a library.

Grow~llll...

"..." Crys suddenly remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday _morning_...

… Scratch that. As soon as he was finished with his shower, Crys was going to a restaurant to fill his stomach and _then_ head to the library.

He had his priorities don't ya know.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Beacon__Academy – __7:30 A.M._

Beacon Academy is the most prestigious of the hunter academies in the country of Vale, perhaps in all of Remnant. Because of that, it's natural that Beacon has a few of the most state of the art training facilities available, including a circular arena large enough to accommodate a little over eight combatants, combat drones with adjustable difficulty settings for students to go all out on, and a spectators area that fits around thirty people.

It was in one of these facilities that we find Team RWBY, spending their morning (and most likely the rest of the day) training.

"Hah!" Weiss yelled as she landed the finishing blow to a combat drone. This was the seventh one that Weiss had destroyed and instead of feeling happy with herself for doing all this without even breaking a sweat, she had a frown adorned on to her face.

_'I was able cut cleanly through most of these AK-130s' armor without the use of Myrtenaster's Fire Dust chamber.'_ Weiss thought to herself. '_How was that monster able to take all of those flaming strikes with just its skin!?'_

It didn't make any sense! While Grimm were able to take the strikes of Myrtenaster, that was only due to their bone-like armor. No creature that she knew of could ever have done what that monster did, and that didn't even factor its ridiculously fast healing abilities.

Her brows furrowed together ever slightly as she sighed and began walking towards her teammates, the ends of her mouth tightening a bit. "Alright, what should we focus on next?" Weiss asked her team leader.

"Hmm... Well, we've been training for a while. We should take a break and start working on some combination attacks later." Ruby replied to her partner. They would all benefit from a break from their hour-long intensive training.

Yesterday's events wouldn't leave any of the girls' minds. The bug man, the spider man, and especially the fight. After they got back on campus and told the headmaster what had happened, they had decided to spend the next day training for their next encounter with that spider creature again. If anyone had heard that line of thought they would ask why they would ever go after that monster and call them crazy.

The thing was that they weren't going to go after the creature at all. The team had heard the spider speak with venom in it's voice as it pointed to Ruby. Seeing that she was the one who had caused the injury that had made the arachnid retreat, it was clear to everyone that it would be trying to get its revenge.

Yang had been the first one to realize this, and the first one to suggest that they train for the eventual threat. There was no way she was going to let that thing hurt her baby sister. She just needed to make sure that the next time they meet, she'll be strong enough to squash the spider.

"Alright, I need some time to think anyways." Weiss' mind was still on the spider creature. "What about you Blake?" She turned her head to the black haired girl, only to see her staring at the floor deep in thought. "Blake?"

"Hm?" Snapped out of her thoughts, Blake looked at her teammate.

"Geez Blake, you've been like this since yesterday." Yang stated as she scratched the back of her head.

Blake had been more silent than usual after they reported to Ozpin. She had only muttered in agreement when Yang had suggested the extra training and any questions that were directed towards her were answered in one, maybe two words.

It was concerning, and Yang wasn't the only one to notice.

"Is something wrong Blake?" Ruby decided to finally ask her what was causing this behavior.

"I... was just thinking about the fight." Blake told her team, finally deciding to voice her thoughts. "More specifically that white, bug armored guy."

"Oh..." Yang nodded in understanding, and suddenly grinned as she said, "So what happened yesterday has been really... _bugging_ you?" Her grin was now threatening to split her face in half.

"Uuuuugh." The other three groaned at Yang's attempt at comedy

One thing that Yang Xiao Long has gained a reputation for at Beacon is that other than being extremely attractive, she was also known for her terrible puns. She seemed to be the only one in the entire academy that found her puns humorous.

"Now is not the time, Yang..." Weiss told the blond brawler as she rubbed her brow in agitation.

"Aw come on, I thought it was funny." Yang pouted at her friends reaction to what _she_ thought was a pretty funny joke.

"Anyways," Blake, deciding to get away from that cringe inducing pun, continued her previous topic, "I noticed something about the belt that he was wearing."

"His belt?" Ruby asked, "What about it?" While she did notice the only apparent article of technology on the white stag beetle, she hadn't really assumed that there was any deeper meaning behind it.

Blake pulled out her Scroll and activated its newspaper app. She pulled up the page featuring the photos from yesterday's paper and showed the rest of the girls the picture that had been plaguing the back of her mind.

"Wha-! That belt!" Weiss' eyes widened as she looked at the picture of a belt with a shattered crystal center.

"It's the same belt that bug guy was wearing!" Yang said aloud in surprise.

"B-but how?! Wasn't that thing broken and still in the museum?" Ruby asked, trying to figure out how this was at all possible.

"That was what I thought too." Blake replied, "But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like this was no coincidence. This is the very same belt." Blake came up with this hypothesis late last night and the more time she spent on the idea, the more the puzzle pieces to the mystery began to fit together.

"... Could it be possible that there were two belts in those ruins?" Weiss queried, her mind now littered with even more questions.

"It's possible. The researchers never finished the excavation of the ruins due to wanting to bring a Hunter with them the next time they go there." Another piece of evidence to support Blake's line of thought. "And that brings up another thought I was having."

"And that would be?" Yang asked, still puzzled by the whole thing.

"The monster we fought may be related to the ruins and to the bug man." Blake revealed. "Think about it, that thing seemed to call out our white armored friend right after Ruby, and it's tone seemed to suggest familiarity." She laid out her thoughts once again to her teammates. "And while this is just guessing on my part, that creature appeared almost a week after the ruins were discovered."

The others were silent, all still wrapping their heads around the entire situation. They didn't know if what Blake had said was true, but the evidence pretty much spoke for itself.

"Should... should we tell Headmaster Ozpin?" Ruby asked the others, not knowing how to go about this situation.

"I'm not sure..." Weiss grabbed her chin in thought. "The headmaster is smart, he probably came up with the same conclusion Blake had yesterday." She wasn't one to underestimate Ozpin's capabilities in figuring things out, he _is_ the headmaster of one of the best hunter academies in Remnant after all.

"Still, just to make sure, we should go and tell the headmaster when we get the chance." Ruby said, deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry.

The others nodded in agreement as they began to walk out of the training room.

"The cafeteria should still be open, ya guys wanna grab a bite to eat?" Yang asked the others. Training for so long can really build an appetite.

"Ooh! Let's do that! I hope they still have some strawberry pancakes left!" Ruby had a large smile on her face. Cookies or strawberries, it didn't matter, Ruby is always determined to somehow eat more than her own weight in those sweets.

The cafeteria has made sure to keep it's reserves full, for they do not want to go through another bout of an upset fifteen year old with a sniper-scythe reeking havoc.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_City Streets – 8:00 A.M._

_'Okay, I spent more money than I wanted to.'_ Crys thought as he walked away from a family restaurant.

While Crys finally got to fill his stomach at the restaurant, he ended up ordering a lot more food than he thought he would, and spent a chunk of his money towards the large meal.

_'Guh... I'm gonna need to be more careful with my spending.'_ He scratched his head in annoyance. _'I don't even eat that much even if I skip meals! Was it because of that fight with the Spider Grongi?' _That was the only explanation that made any sense. He must have burned through a crap ton of calories during that battle.

Definitely the most intense workout he's ever gone through.

Though thinking of that battle brought some questions to his head.

_'Who were those girls? And what the hell was up with those weapons they were wielding? Did I really teleport into a magical girl world? Wait a minute, what kind of magical girl uses a sniper-scythe?'_

_'Gah! I'm getting nowhere with these questions.'_ Crys shook his head to dispel those stray thoughts. _'I doubt it'll answer all my questions but now is the time to head to the library... As soon as I figure out where it is.'_

With his goal set, Crys set out to ask someone where the closest library was.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Front of the Vale Library – 2:00 P.M._

_'Well that was... informative...'_ Crys thought as he walked out of the library.

It took him around thirty minutes to find the library and when he did, he had an easy time finding a book on this world's general history.

Unfortunately for him, reading that book required him to read many other books that pertained to things he didn't understand.

The fact that it took him almost six hours both spoke on how many books he had to read and how quickly he could digest new information. If he wasn't so interested in the topics it would have taken him even longer.

First of all was the world he was currently in. It was called Remnant and he was on the continent of Vytal. The country itself is called Vale, which was also the name of one of the four kingdoms that ruled this world, and the name of the very city Crys was standing in.

As he continued reading he found out that Vale is considered a safe haven from the Grimm. What the Grimm were, well, Crys needed another book telling him that. Once he acquired that piece of reading material, he learned that Grimm were dark, violent monsters with bone-like armor that preyed upon people. They resembled animals and depending on how long it lived Grimm could grow to colossal proportions. It was up to the Hunters to deal with them.

Another text explained that Huntsmen and Huntresses were basically warriors that protect the innocent from criminals and, more specifically, the Grimm. There were schools all over Remnant that prioritized in teaching young men and women how to fight against the creatures of the dark.

_'That explains why those girls were carrying around weapons I'd find in a Monster Hunter game.'_ It made sense as to why they showed up. They probably assumed that the creature on the rampage was a Grimm and came to stop it. But that didn't explain why they looked around his age. From what he could gather, Hunter exclusive academies had an acceptance age of seventeen and they didn't become real hunters until four years later. Shouldn't an experienced Hunter have come instead of them or was there something that Crys didn't know about. And that didn't even factor in that Ruby girl, who looked to be the youngest out of all of them.

_'Ah well. I really shouldn't complain. If anyone more experienced came, they probably would have stopped me to ask questions.'_ Worst case scenario they would have locked him up and have him questioned about who he was and where he came from, since he technically didn't exist in this world until yesterday.

Wait, no. The worst case scenario would have been if they had actually used those weapons on _him_!

Getting away from those thoughts, Crys went back to the thing that really got his head thinking: the Faunus.

Faunus were similar to humans in terms of genetics but also different enough to be classified as their own separate species. They could actually be considered superior to humans in a physical aspect due to their naturally more attuned senses and very useful night-vision.

The telltale sign that someone was a Faunus was if they had some sort of animal body part on them, usually a pair of ears or a tail.

The very first thought that Crys had after reading up on what Faunus were was, _'HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?!'_

Seriously! How did these beings come into existence?! Did they evolve from animals or humans? If animals, then why did they look almost identical to humans?! If humans, then where did those animal parts come from?! Crys had a distinct feeling that Charles Darwin was spinning in his grave back on Earth.

Those thoughts, however, were stopped when he read on how these beings were treated. Faunus used to be only allowed to live on the continent of Menagerie until the Faunus Rights Revolution. The violent conflict ended with the Faunus finally allowed to go out to the rest of the world.

But despite this, Faunus are still not treated with the equality they deserve.

At best, they're treated like second-class citizens.

At worst, they're treated like animals.

Crys sighed as he finished that thought. _'Even in a different world, people still find ways to make me feel disgusted for being a human.'_

Considering the Civil Rights Movement back in his world, it may take a hundred years before equality for all sets in.

He remembered all that other stuff he still had questions on. Dust, Auras, Semblances and much more. But with all that studying and the final topic being a reminder on how much the human race can be a bunch of douchbags, Crys was mentally exhausted. He can go back to the library tomorrow. Right now he just wanted to go back to the motel and take a nap.

Hopefully nothing else happens later on to get him even more stressed out.

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_Outside an Office Building – 10:00 P.M._

_'Guh, I can't wait to get back home.'_ A women thought as she walked away from her place of employment.

She just had to be the good worker and take on more work than she could have finished before the end of her shift. She's just happy that she'll be getting paid overtime for this.

Wrapped up in her thought as she went towards her car, the office worker was completely unaware of the figure that was standing on the building. It was wrapped in darkness but one could make out that the being looked vaguely like a humanoid bat.

As the woman inserted the keys into the door lock, the figure decided that now was the time to strike. It spread its arms to reveal skin-like flaps that resembled wings. It leaped toward the woman as it flapped its wings to glide along the air, getting closer to its prey.

The office worker heard something that sounded like wings flapping in the air. She had the thought that an owl or bat was flying towards her. When she turned around to see what was causing the noise she came face-to-face with the monster.

She had no time to scream as the bat sank its fangs into the preys tender neck.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Outside the Office Building – The Next Day – 9:00 A.M._

A car pulled up to the crime scene. When it stopped, the door opened to reveal a man with brown hair and a beard-mustache combo. He was decked out in a white dress shirt and black tie and pants, with a brown trench coat worn over his wardrobe. His eyes remained hidden by his aviator sunglasses.

"Inspector Burns." An officer dressed similarly to the now identified inspector, minus the coat walked up to him.

"Hullum." The head of the operation nodded his head in greeting before getting straight to business. "What's the situation look like?"

"Well..." Officer Hullum began as both men walked to the sight of the body. "When the medical examiner got here, he said that the body was drained of most of her blood."

"What!?" Burns was shocked by that revelation. "Seriously?!"

"Mmm. Just take a look" When they arrived at the body, Burns was greeted by the sight of a woman dressed in business casual lying lifelessly on the cold pavement. She looked... off. The woman had a type of thinness that one never saw. As if something was removed from her. In this case, her blood.

"Any visible injuries?" The inspector asked, repressing a grimace at the sight of the unusual corpse.

"Only two." The officer said as he pointed towards her neck. The two holes were in close proximity to each other, almost like-

"Teeth marks?" Burns asked once he got a closer look at the wounds.

"We won't know until we get her back to the lab. But that's what we're assuming for now." Hullum told the inspector, who now had a troubled expression on his face. "Although I think it's safe to say that it wasn't a human or a faunus that did this."

"So... we're dealing with something like Unidentified Lifeform #1 from yesterday then. Great." Not great. The officers weren't effective in even holding that creature back. If another one of those things really is around then the force may need to use higher caliber bullets or have a Hunter permanently on standby. _'Then again, according to those Huntresses-in-Training's reports even sniper rounds may not cut it. Having a Hunter around will be our best bet in reducing casualties.'_

Unidentified Lifeform was the label given to those two things that had shown up the other day. The station had thought it necessary to give them this name, as they were obviously not Grimm, but did not look like any creature recorded in Remnant's history. The attack of this woman had shown that there was a #3 in the midst.

The worst part was that this wasn't the only corpse that was discovered this morning. From what he got with the discussion with Hullum, there were at least four other bodies with similar wounds accounted for, all in alleyways. Other investigators were handling those crime scenes while he took care of this one. It was the only one out in the open and Burns was the station's best bet at getting it solved relatively quickly.

"While you guys get the body back to the morgue, I'll go around and see if there were any witnesses that spotted the thing that did this." The inspector said as he went to his car.

He also needed to call the station and see if they'd get a Hunter on standby. Best not to take any chances.

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_Vale Library – 11:30 A.M._

The Vale Library was not the only library located in this vast city, but it _is_ the largest. With two floors filled with shelves upon shelves of literature, this place was any bibliophiles dream come true.

It's here that we find Crys, sitting at one of the desks in the deeper parts of the library for the sake of making sure he wasn't interrupted. He had numerous books of varying subjects and was trying to get through one that covered Dust and its applications.

The keyword being _trying_.

While he was getting the info from the book, he was having trouble fully concentrating on it due to what he saw in the news this morning.

There were five murders last night, and although the police haven't revealed the method on how the people were killed, Crys already had the distinct feeling that this was the work of a Grongi.

_'Aw man, how could I have forgotten about them?! Did I just subconsciously block out what happened two days ago!?' _ If he remembers the events of Kamen Rider Kuuga correctly and considers the fact that the killings were happening at night, then the one currently on the prowl was probably the Bat Grongi.

A creature that, at Crys' current level of strength, will most undoubtedly kill him.

_'Okay Crys, calm down, no need to start panicking. No one said that you had to fight this thing. Just let a Hunter take care of it.' _There was no need for him to risk his life fighting those monsters. From what he's read, Hunter's are extraordinary warriors and shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with the Grongi threat. They're the ones who have all the experience fighting murderous creatures. Besides, if he tried to help them out in his current condition he'd probably be worse than dead weight.

_'Okay, those thoughts calmed me down enough. Now I can finally get back to this book.'_

And so, with his mind reassured, Crys continued to read about the magical minerals known as Dust.

Or at least, attempted to. For some reason, there was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that kept him distracted and made his progress in all of the books slow down tremendously.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Beacon__Academy – 4:30 P.M._

All the members of Team RWBY were deep in thought after classes ended for the day.

The news from this morning did not sit well with any of them. The police didn't reveal how the victims were killed but the girls had the sneaking suspicion that the spider monster from two days ago was involved.

Weiss and Blake were silently seething at the fact that the monster was still out there, killing people because they weren't strong enough to stop that thing permanently..

Ruby's feelings were similar to her teammates, but instead of anger, the primary emotion she was feeling was guilt. She thought it was because of her that those innocent people were now dead. If she had at least tried to have chased that thing instead of letting it go then these events could have been avoided. These feelings directly affected her in class as she barely paid attention to any of the professor's lectures.

Yang was angry for the same reasons as Weiss and Blake but another part of her was also angry at what that thing had inadvertently done to her sister. She was hoping Ruby wouldn't have to deal with this kind of guilt until _maybe_ her second year of Beacon. Call her over protective, but Yang was now determined to make sure that spider freak paid for making her baby sister upset.

They were all inside their dorm room, Ruby slowly eating a bag of her favorite cookies, Weiss filling her nails, Blake reading a book, and Yang combing her hair. None of them spoke, no one feeling like starting a conversation or even talking about what happened this morning.

Eventually, Yang was the one to break the silence as she got up, groaning loudly. This caught her teammates attention and made Ruby ask, "What's wrong, Yang?"

"I think you know exactly what's wrong, Ruby." Yang said, giving Ruby a sad look as she looked down, not wanting to make eye contact.

"Look Ruby, it isn't your fault that those people died. If anything, we all share responsibility for letting that monster get away." Blake told her leader. She wanted to tell this to Ruby sooner but wasn't able to figure out how to start. She wasn't used to comforting other people, so she was thankful when Yang broke the metaphorical ice.

"Yeah, I know but..." Ruby didn't finish that sentence due to her starting to eat another cookie. She was clearly only eating the snacks due to impulse at this point.

Weiss let out a sigh as she began to speak with her leader. "Look, Ruby, I understand why you're upset. Believe me, I am too. But just sitting there feeling sorry for yourself won't make the problems you're facing go away."

Ruby knew this, but what other methods did she have instead... of...

At this point, a Dust powered light bulb would have appeared over Ruby's head. "Weiss! You're a genius!"

"I am?" Not that she was arguing.

"We just need to find that monster and make sure it doesn't cause anymore harm ever again." Ruby spoke, the determination in her voice was almost palpable.

"What!? Ruby, no! That's way too dangerous!" A part of Yang wanted to agree with this plan, but her older sister instincts overrode whatever feelings of revenge she had.

"Not if we make sure to stay together while searching." Yang's sister replied with a smile and continued by saying, "Besides, while that thing may not fall for the exact same trick twice, we haven't shown it _all_ of the tactics we have."

"... While this _does_ seem risky, that creature isn't going to stop itself." Weiss responded with closed eyes. "As long as we're careful, I can agree with Ruby's plan." _'Besides,'_ the heiress added in her head, _'I need to see if using more potent Dust will have a better affect on that thing.'_

"I agree with Weiss on this. If we actively search, then there's a lower chance of it killing another person." Blake gave her feedback, ultimately agreeing with the other two girls.

"Hmmm..." Yang was at a crossroad. On one hand, she didn't want to risk her sister getting killed by that thing again. But on the other hand, she had to admit that they all had good points and she really didn't want to see Ruby be depressed again. "... Fine." She finally relented. "But we have to stay together at all times, got it?"

"No problem, sis!" Ruby declared while smiling brightly. "Alright Team RWBY, let's lock and load 'cuz there's a monster out there we gotta stop!" While she would admit that that line was rather cheesy, Ruby was still pumped and determined to stop that monster from taking any more lives

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_City Streets – 7:00 P.M._

"Alright, thank you for your time."

"No problem, officer."

_'Well, while I don't feel much closer to solving this case, this was still a good lead to go by.'_ Inspector Burns had just finished speaking with a witness, who claimed to have seen a giant bat man flying around in the city. While most would write the man off, thinking he was probably drunk, Burns didn't completely discredit him and decided to listen before passing his final judgment.

The man had admitted to having had a few drinks when he saw the creature, but the description of the thing was detailed to the point where the inspector could see that it was legit.

_'A giant bat man huh? Well, that certainly explains the teeth marks on all of the victims.'_ He took a look at the sky. The sun would finish setting soon and if this thing really was a bat man, then it would be active only at night.

Inspector Burns got into his car and began to take the shortest route to the station. The chief needs to hear about this as soon as possible so they can get a Hunter before the sun finishes setting.

Unfortunately, Burns knew he would probably be too late.

**-xXx-**

_At the same time_

_'Ugh, that took way longer than it should have.'_ Crys thought to himself as he aimlessly wandered around the streets of Vale.

What should have been only a few hours of reading for him ended up taking the rest of the day. It was all thanks to that terrible feeling he was getting in the pit of his stomach.

_'What's wrong with me?'_ Crys asked himself as he held his stomach for what felt like the hundredth time today.

He couldn't be getting sick. The Arcle jacked up his immune system to the point where illness will pretty much become none existent to him.

After he left the library, he decided to go on a walk to see if that could get rid of the feeling, but no such luck.

_'Maybe a good night's sleep could fix this. But then again, I'll probably have trouble just fall.. ing... to...'_ Crys' thought process was put on hold when he finally started to pay attention to his surroundings.

_'Where the heck am I?'_ He couldn't recognize any of the streets or buildings and something told him he was a long ways away from the motel.

_'… Dammit.'_ That was the only word Crys had running though his head when he realized that he had gotten himself lost.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Police Station – 8:00 P.M._

The sun had completed it's descent and now the shattered moon had made it's appearance over the city of Vale.

Burns had told the chief of his discovery and wasted no time in calling a Hunter to take care of the problem. Unfortunately, it would take time for the Hunter to arrive. The chief didn't want to risk anymore civilian lives and had sent Burns on active patrol along with four other officers.

The chief didn't want to send his men out there without protection so he had authorized the use of some special ammunition.

Aura is the manifestation of the soul. The simplest way to describe it is that it is like a force field for those who have unlocked it within themselves. Aura wasn't all powerful though. Hit something enough times or just once with a powerful strike and the "force field" will fail and it will take time for it to "recharge". However, it was discovered that things traveling at _extremely_ high speeds, faster than most bullets, could almost ignore the protection of Aura.

This led to the creation of a type of ammunition called Aura Piercing Bullets. A special blend of Dust (whose mixture is a closely guarded secret of the Schnee Dust Company) allows the bullets to be fired at speeds that almost come close to supersonic. However, that, along with the Dust mixture itself, causes larger bullets to break apart before they even reach the intended target. Because of this, the production of the bullets is limited to smaller caliber ammunition.

While that exists, the creation of this type of ammunition has still lead to much controversy. This type of ammunition could lead to top level Hunters being shot down by punks from the street. Thankfully, the Schnee Dust Company had realized the chaos that this new type of ammunition could cause and had set several limits to make the acquisition of the ammunition difficult.

The only ones who are allowed to purchase these deadly bullets are high ranking Hunters and select police stations. Hunters have to go through a (almost painfully long) process of signing papers, as well as the police (an even _longer_ process of paper signing). The bullets were also only produced after a request for them has been made, thus preventing the possibility of a shipment of them being stolen (as an extra precaution, shipments must also be picked up by the one who had made the request). The only reason as to why the ammunition is even sold is because they are extremely useful at taking care of dangerous (and often psychotic) criminals that have access to their Aura's. While the controversy over Aura Piercing Bullets still exists, the precautions taken to keep them out of the hands of the public has made many of the original naysayers be silent and content.

While these monsters weren't apparently capable of using Aura, the police force needed to step up their game if they even wanted to pierce those thing's skins.

"All right men," Police Inspector Burns said aloud to the brave officers that volunteered to participate on this dangerous assignment. "You've already been informed of the dangers of this patrol but I'm gonna give you all one last warning, you're not being forced into doing this. You're all allowed to walk away from this."

"I'm not leaving, Burns. I knew one of the guys that was killed by that monster and I don't intend for another friend to take my place." One of the officers told the police inspector, the expression on his face was one of finality. He wasn't going to back down and neither were the rest of the officers judging by their similar expressions.

Burns sighed at this, but couldn't help but to admire the dedication of these men in uniform.

"Alright then. Everyone load your pistols with the Aura Piercing Bullets." The officers did just that as Burns continued. "We have to stay vigilant. Stay together at all times and try to fire at that thing all at once to maximize damage." The police officers made their way to their cars as Burns said this. "Let's roll."

And so the cops drove to the darker section of the city, with hopes to slay the bat and to prevent the loss of anymore innocent lives.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_City Streets – Same Time_

"I'm starting to think that we should have thought this out a bit more." Weiss said to the others as they walked down a sidewalk.

"What makes you say that?" Yang asked, curious as to what had made the heiress speak up.

Instead, Blake was the one to reply. "I think it's the fact that we've been walking around for hours and the only suspicious thing that's happened was that creepy guy asking us if we wanted to buy some 'quality' products."

"Oh yeah..." That had definitely been weird. Seriously, what in Dusts name was a "Game Boy"? Sounded like some sort of knock-off of the 3DX Minkendo console.

Seriously, what kind of video game system only had 8-bit sprites?

"Yeah, this isn't going as well as I'd hoped." Ruby was hoping that they'd encounter that creature and get involved in a dramatic battle that would end with the beast slain and those dead victims avenged, with a parade in their honor, and gold medals that declared them heroes of the people.

… Thinking about it now, Ruby may have ended romanticizing the potential end results of this expedition.

"Let's keep searching for another hour before we head back to Beacon." Weiss suggested. She was honestly hoping that there wouldn't be any killings tonight, especially since they haven't encountered anything suspicious (baring the previously mentioned weird guy). But Weiss had grown accustomed to expecting the worst of a situation.

She just hoped she would be wrong this time.

And so, Team RWBY made their way deeper into the city of Vale. In particular, an area where there isn't much in the way of lights.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_City Streets – 8:30 P.M._

_'Good job, I think you've gotten yourself even more lost than you were before.'_ It's times like this that Crys really wished his inner voice wasn't so snarky to him, because he was starting to annoy himself.

The section of Vale that he had wandered into was pretty sparse of life. The only thing he's seen that was a living thing was a cat that scampered across the street, and that was over five minutes ago. _'Really regretting going on that walk, eh Crysy?'_

"Shut up inner voice." Great, now he was talking to himself.

He sighed in exasperation. Maybe if he went back the way he came he could find someone who knew where the motel he was-

"**AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!**"

That loud scream of pain and terror nearly made Crys want to scream himself. It had come from an alleyway not too far from him. Someone was in trouble! Damn! He didn't have a phone or whatever thing was used to make calls in this world. How was he supposed to-

"Quick! It came from over here!" Well, his thoughts seemed to be interrupted a lot lately. A bunch of guys in what looked like police uniforms ran into the alley with guns at the ready.

_'Oh good. The police happened to be here. They should take care of th-'_ His skin paled when a new thought surged into his head. This was starting to look like that one scene in Kamen Rider Kuuga's second episode where... Oh no.

Crys ran to the entrance of the alleyway, hiding in a corner and looking over it and hoped that this wasn't really happening.

When he saw it, his heart nearly stopped.

The police were firing their guns at a humanoid bat creature, who was perched over a dead body.

The thing reminded Crys of the Spider Grongi, only with many key differences. It was greyish black as apposed to green and it didn't have the retractable wrist claws. What it did have was a pair of flaps on it's arms that were reminiscent of bat wings. It's head also had large, bat-like ears on the side. The eyes bore resemblance to a mask with narrow slits, but it honestly looked more like the snout of a bat nose than eyes. The most grotesque thing about this creature was it mouth. It was permanently opened, the creatures razor sharp teeth and disgusting gums are on full display.

This is the Bat Grongi, a creature who's appearance alone made Crys freeze in place. It was fortunate that no one had seen him.

The bullets made their mark, all successfully going through the Grongi.

But that was all they were doing. When the bullets made their exit, the wounds immediately closed up. The only thing these new bullets were doing was making the Bat Grongi pissed.

It leaped at the closest officer, who kept firing at the bat. Once it got in close proximity, the officer tried to pistol whip the thing in the head.

The attack landed successfully, but the only indication that it did anything was that the creature head turned slightly.

The very instant that the officer realized the situation he was in, the monster grabbed him by the neck and flung him at a nearby wall. The impact made a loud smack and if one had been closer to the place of impact, they would have heard a snapping sound and would have seen the small amount of spider web-like cracks on the wall.

The officer did not get back up.

"BASTAAAAARD!" One of the policemen had lost it after he saw a fellow officer be so callously killed. He shot the thing in the head as he ran up to exact his revenge. The bullets actually seemed less effective than they were before, not even piercing the skin and only creating sparks. Its head was likely to be more sturdy than the rest of it's body.

"No! Get back here! We can't take this thing on one-on-one!" A bearded man yelled at the reckless cop. Judging by his attire, he seemed to be the leader of this patrol group.

An officer behind him opened up a screen-like device and began to speak into it. "This is the Unidentified Lifeform Patrol Team! We have a man down! We need back up! I repeat! We have a man down! We need back up!"

_'No, NO! Their back up won't get here in time! They'll all be killed!'_ What was Crys going to do?! He was too scared to move. The Bat Grongi will be stronger than the Spider Grongi, so he didn't stand much of a chance. But he couldn't just leave those mean to die! What was he going to do?!

"GAAAAHHH!" The scream cut off Crys' thoughts as he looked up to see the death of another officer. He died the same way the other did only instead of hitting a wall, he hit a metal pole. The impact had caused it to topple over.

The remaining officers started to back away as the Bat monster stalked forward. They could try to run but who knows how fast that thing was. The Aura Piercing Bullets they had brought with them barely had any effect and none of them were skilled enough in hand-to-hand combat to hold this thing off.

Burns hated himself right now. He had severely underestimated this thing and it cost him the lives of two good men.

And it looked like the Unidentified Lifeform would take three more.

However, as the Bat Grongi was moving towards it's prey, it was interrupted by the sound of gunshots and sparks erupting from it's back.

It turned around to see who had dared to attack it and the other eyes in the alley widened in surprise as they stared at a group of girls that had appeared with a variety of weapons at the ready.

**-****xXx-**

Team RWBY had heard the scream from a few blocks away and they rushed to the area of it's origin.

When they arrived at the scene, they were greeted by the site of a dead civilian, two dead police officers and three more backing away from a monster. Ruby wasted no time in unloading a few rounds into the things back using Crescent Rose's rifle mode. However, they all had the thought that the creature had looked different from the last time they saw it. When it turned around, it confirmed their suspicions.

This was not the same creature from two days ago.

_'There's more of these things?!'_ Blake thought as she stared at the grotesque bat creature. _'Just how many more are there?'_

The bat stared at them and then actually started to laugh. It started to speak in it's ancient tongue as it pointed towards the Team. More specifically, towards _Ruby_.

Yang's eyes widened as she prepared to launch herself towards that thing. It seemed that thing knew about her sister, meaning that it's likely in league with that spider monster from two days ago.

Before she could finish her thought on how to take this thing on, it leaped to them, using the flaps on it's wings to glide for extra distance.

When it landed, it began to attack the closest person to it, and that was Weiss. The Bat Grongi was intent on dealing with her the same way as the police officers, but Weiss was more skilled than it thought. She was parrying all of its strikes with her rapier. When she finally managed to land some counter strikes, it produced the same results as when she had fought that spider monster, it only created sparks. Blake had decided to join in to give Weiss some room and to allow her to activate Myrtenaster's Dust chambers.

However, the bat proved to be faster than the spider in both thought process and reflexes as it grabbed Weiss' arm and swung her at Blake. She saw this and did not finish her blade's swinging motion as not to accidentally harm her teammate. This led to Weiss harshly slamming into Blake and both girls being sent flying towards the officers.

"Weiss! Blake!" Ruby screamed in shock. That thing had actually managed to land a pretty heavy hit to them, something that the spider creature never did. She then heard a beeping sound coming from her Scroll. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked at her teammates Aura Gauges. While they were both still in the green, they had lost a good chunk of their Aura from that one hit. The only one who can take hits like that is Yang, who was luckily the most proficient in hand-to-hand combat. But she still didn't like the idea of sending her older sister against that thing.

Ruby needed to come up with a plan on how to deal with this thing and fast.

Meanwhile, Crys couldn't help but stare in shock after what had transpired.

The Grongi had hit them, and pretty hard too. The Bat Grongi seemed to rely on actual hand-to-hand combat as apposed to the Spider Grongi who relied on its wrist claws. The Bat also seemed to be slightly faster due to it being able to grab Weiss and use her as a weapon.

_'They're gonna need help.'_ He thought about how they had helped him without him even asking for it. He would be dead if it weren't for them. Then again, there was an even higher chance of him dying this time...

He clenched his fists, his mind going through the pros and cons of doing this. Until he finally came to a decision.

_'Dammit! Stupid conscience!'_ His mind made up, he ran towards the battle, wondering if he was brave or stupid for doing this.

Probably both.

**-xXx-**

Blake's stomach hurt like hell after that bat monster essentially used Weiss as a club on her. Weiss wasn't in the best shape either, due to the aforementioned weaponization of said heiress. They both felt that their Aura reserves had taken quit the hit too. They'll need to proceed with even more caution than with the spider monster if they want a chance to-

The sound of rapid footsteps had caused Blake to turn her head around. She suspected that it was one of the officers that was still there and was prepared to tell them to stay back, that they're more capable of handling the situation.

However, what she saw instead was a young man around her age. She could tell that from his build that he wasn't from Hunter's Academy (those who attend combat schools tend to bulk up, even if they have a lighter physique). The young man ran past the officers, her and Weiss.

_'What is that idiot doing!?'_ Blake thought, incidentally thinking the same thing as all others who had seen the boy's appearance. _'He's gonna get himself killed!'_

But before anyone could yell at him to get away, the young man had done something unexpected.

"Henshin!" The boy yelled just before he began his strike at the creature. When he landed a punch on the thing, a piece of white armor appeared on his arm. With every hit that the boy landed, more and more of that armor appeared on his body until, to the shock of everyone there, he had completed his transformation.

The young man had transformed into the stag beetle man from two days ago.

_'Unidentified Lifeform #2?!'_ To say that Burns and the other officers were surprised would be an understatement. The station and all associated had heard of the being that had helped the Huntresses-in-Training with fighting the spider monster, but had no idea how to go forth with that information. On one hand, this mysterious figure had appeared from out of nowhere on the same day as the spider creature. But on the other, this being had helped those Huntresses-in-Training, had never shown any intention of harming them, and even unintentionally provided a clue as to what these things are (long dead ancient language) in this countries language! As a safety precaution, the force had labeled the stag beetle man as an Unidentified Lifeform in the event that this being did not have the best of intentions.

But to have a thing that you originally thought was a monster and have it turn out to be human was a real shock.

The now transformed Kuuga, whose attack had gotten the attention of the Bat Grongi, kept up his strikes until they were ended by the Bat backhanding him so hard that he went flying towards Weiss and Blake.

"HA!" Yang launched to the bat monster. Her right fist connected to its gut and Ember Celica fired off. The Grongi was blown back a few feet with a loud grunt but was otherwise none the worse for ware.

Blake, recovered from her blow, leaped to take a swing at the monster. The creature dodged and was about to claw her face with its sharp nails. Blake was able to block it with her sheath and changed her katana to its pistol mode and began to unload into the area where Yang had struck. The ammunition she was currently using was stronger then what she had used against the spider, and were forcing the monster to stagger back. Unfortunately, the bullets still failed to penetrate the creature's skin but at least the stronger bullets proved to be more effective.

Yang had jumped up high into the air, her fist cocked back with the intent of squishing this monster (a move that she was initially reserving for a certain arachnid).

However, those large ears on the side of the Grongi's head weren't just for show. It had heard the blond girl reach the apex of her jump and right when she got near, it leaped to the area where Weiss and Kuuga were. The impact of Yang's punch had actually created a dent in the ground and made Blake fall flat on her behind due to the small shockwave.

Weiss had finally stopped nursing her head when the bat creature began to fly towards her direction. She activated Myrtenaster's Fire Dust chamber and when it drew close enough, she swung, and cursed internally when it blocked.

She exchanged more blocks and parries with the creature and was able to take notice that it was wary of the flaming rapier and was making sure that no actual hits were made on its torso.

_'Could this be its weakness?'_ Maybe if she actually landed a hit she could take this thing down.

And it looked like Weiss would get her opening as sparks began to erupt form the bat monsters back. Ruby was firing Crescent Rose in its rifle mode, realizing the same thing as her partner and hoping that she would use this as an opportunity. _'Now's my chance! I can-'_

"Haa!" Before Weiss could even begin to swing her blade, the bug eyed combatant landed a haymaker on the creature's head which made it stagger back. This guy had just taken her opening!

Meanwhile, Kuuga was continuing his assault on the Grongi. His swings were all overall doing the most damage out of all the things that's hit this bat today, but unfortunately that wasn't saying much.

The Bat Grongi was finally getting pissed off at this (lackluster) attempt at a fight and made a few swipes at the White Kuuga's torso. The attacks created sparks off of Kuuga's chest.

"GAAAAAH!" The Grongi finished its attack with a kick that knocked Kuuga down on his back. It would have continued its assault but the sound of a gunshot and of something coming towards it _fast_ made it change its plans and decided to jump into the air once again.

Ruby was thinking that the same plan used to wound that spider monster would have worked here too. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to go through the entire plan and just skipped right to part five, hoping that the monster was distracted by the fight it was in.

But the bat had heard her and jumped away from the danger in the nick of time. This resulted in Crescent Rose stabbing in between Kuuga's legs, almost hitting his... personal area.

"... Aaaahh!" It took a few seconds for Crys to realize what had just happened and he immediately began to backpedal away from the lethal weapon. He may not have much of a shot at getting agirlfriend but he still wanted kids someday!

"Oops, sorry." That was way too close. Maybe Ruby should have probably gone for an upward swing instead of a downward.

But she wasn't given room to think on her mistake as the Bat Grongi dropkicked her right onto the bug eyed fighter as it made its descent.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled out as she and Blake made their way towards them. Yang would have socked that bat in the face, but her sisters safety came first

Ruby and Kuuga got up by the time Weiss, Blake and Yang got there. The Grongi spoke once again, agitation seeping in its voice. The combatants prepared themselves, the battle ahead would be the toughest yet.

The tension, however, was cut by the sound of a police siren. A police car drove into the alley and shined its high beams on to the scene.

"AAAUUH! AAAAAHHH!" The Bat Grongi screamed in terror as the intense light shone into its eyes. It wasted no time in quickly flying away from the car lights.

"Not again!" Yang shouted in frustration. This was the second time one of these things has gotten away, and unlike the last time, she couldn't really give chase. The three remaining officers tried to shoot the creature down, but it was flying too fast for them to actually hit the thing.

The Bat Grongi had escaped.

Kuuga sighed in relief, unintentionally canceling out his transformation in the process. _'That thing was tougher than I ever thought. We really lucked out.'_ The others looked distracted so it looked like now was the best time to exit discreetly.

Police Inspector Burns was sighing as well, but for a different reason. He had lost two good men today, and had failed to save an innocent. Not only that, but the Aura Piercing Bullets had completely failed to kill the Unidentified Lifeform. This night was just full of frustrations.

"Alright," the inspector began, "We're all going to the station, and you!" he said while pointing to Crys, who was trying to sneak away. He immediately halted mid-step, slowly turning his head to the numerous eyes that were now staring at him. Burns sighed once again. "You're coming too."

This was gonna be a long night.

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_Beacon Academy – __8:__45 P.M._

Ozpin watched as the car that carried the last of the night's combatants drove off to the police station.

The headmaster of Beacon Academy had been keeping a close eye on Team RWBY after they had told him about the battle with the spider monster, who was now dubbed Unidentified Lifeform #1. Teens had the tendency to make decisions that most would deem a bit rash so he had suspected that they would try to find #1 and have a rematch with a more definite conclusion.

Ah, youth.

Getting back to the original point, Ozpin had sent one of his drones out to keep an eye on the girls and his assumption was correct when they encountered an Unidentified Lifeform. The only issue was that it wasn't the one they were looking for. The bat creature, who will likely be dubbed Unidentified Lifeform #3, put up a bit more of a fight than #1, likely due to not completely underestimating its opponents.

However, the headmaster was surprised that the person known as Unidentified Lifeform #2 had shown up, and that he had got a clear shot of his face. An unexpected bonus. He'll need to run the picture through his personal database to see if he was listened in.

Professor Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, wondering how to proceed from here when an idea hit him. The police will most likely want someone to come and pick the girls up and his assistant was not currently doing anything of great importance.

Let it not be said that Ozpin could not be a bit mischievous at times.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Police Station – 9:15 P.M._

_'Man, I hope they get this over with soon. This is getting really nerve racking.__'_ Crys thought as he sat on a seat in the hallway.

He and the girls had been taken to the station and, one by one, had been asked to come into this inspector's office. Most likely for questioning for why they were there.

Except for him. Crys had been spending the last fifteen minutes just sitting there, getting more and more nervous as time went on.

It wasn't helping matters as that Weiss girl kept sending glares his way and that other girl with her curious looks ah, what was her name again? Black? No, Blake! Thankfully Yang(?) had been the only one there who wasn't staring a him, just content to sit there and look bored.

The door opened again with Ruby and Inspector Burns stepping out. "While I can't condone your actions, I can thank you all for saving me and my remaining men's lives." The police inspector said to them, the words laced in genuine appreciation. "Someone from the academy's come to pick you girls up, come on." He told them as he walked to the elevator.

The others followed him in silence until one of them asked, "So, um, what are we going to do now?"

All eyes snapped to Crys, who was now regretting opening his mouth. Seriously, all this staring was not good for his nerves.

"_You_ are going home." Burns stated with absolute finality.

"Wha- But I can help! I can-"

"Kid, look. I can appreciate your enthusiasm, but I saw how you fought. If you were to come along, you'd just be dead weight."

"But-"

"Look kid, you're lucky I'm not locking you up for questioning for how you were able to do what you did back there. Just go home. Alright?" Burns had gotten the other officers to swear they wouldn't tell anyone else that the kid, who they learned was named Crys, had transformed into Unidentified Lifeform #2. When asked why, he said there would be many people out there who would like to get their answers on a _dissection_ _table_.

That had gotten their cooperation. Burns had two kids of his own and did not like the image of a seventeen year old boy getting his insides taken out. He can question the kid after the bat problem's been taken care of.

The elevator opened and all but Crys went inside. The only one giving him any sort of sympathetic look was Ruby.

The elevator closed but Crys kept staring at it for the next few minutes.

Crys finally decided to go down the elevator and ask the receptionist where the Solatium Motel was.

That horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach had come back and never left his side.

**-****xXx-**

_A few minutes earlier..._

"So, who's come to take us back to the Academy?" Weiss asked the police inspector. No one had come to bring them back before, so why now?

"Oh, you'll see." That was weird. Why isn't Burns telling them?

Once they reached the first floor, the elevator door open and Team RWBY's eyes widened.

Standing near the receptionist's desk was a blond woman, standing at 6'5" and looking rather _"annoyed." _(Read: pissed off.)

Curved slightly, she wore a white, long-sleeved white suit with a hole above her slightly exposed, pale white chest. The collar covered her neck. Her sleeves were puffy, but tighten near the wrist before spreading again at her hands. On her lower body was a black business skirt with buttons running vertically downwards. Her legs were covered with black-brown stockings and black boots, with brown heals. On her back was a tattered cape which was black on the outside, yet purple on the inside, with a row of diamond-shaped brown beads going horizontally across it. Above the line of beads was an emblem of a tiara, also colored brown. Her light-blonde hair was tied in a bun, with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Said hair was also hiding her teal earrings, which bore a small bead each at their ends, identical to the one on her collar. She wore thin, ovular, purple glasses. Behind her glasses were a pair of green, smoldering eyes. They fit perfectly with her face, that of a woman entering her early to mid-thirties that was trying to hide the most terrifying scowl you'd ever see in your life. This was Professor Glynda Goodwitch, the personal assistant to Professor Ozpin. Beacon's top fighting instructor and one of its top Huntresses.

"Hello girls. You have a lot of explaining to do back at Beacon." The smile that followed could scare away any Grimm.

The girls could not help but stand still in absolute fear in her presence, their minds occupied with terrifying images of their punishments to come.

**-****xXx-**

_Vale_

_Beacon Academy – 9:40 P.M._

"Now then," Goodwitch began, "what exactly were you all thinking when you decided to engage that creature?"

Team RWBY was now in the office of Professor Ozpin, who was calmly sipping his coffee while Professor Goodwitch grilled the Huntresses-in-Training. Not one of them was looking up.

"U-um... That we need to save those police officers?" Ruby half-asked-half-told one of Beacon's elite.

The emotionless expression the professor directed at Ruby made her want to hide behind Yang for protection.

"Now, now, Glynda." The Headmaster said while holding the cup to his mouth, behind he was fighting back a smile. "There's no need to blame them for their actions."

"Sir, while I can admit that they did the right thing," the faces of the girls brightened up, "they were also extremely reckless in their approach and could have risked the lives of the other officers if the battle had continued." and then proceeded to cringe.

"I am well aware." Ozpin replied with an even tone. "Which is why I am asking that if you encounter another one of those Unidentified Lifeforms again, that you engage in combat _only_ if it is absolutely necessary." The entirety of Team RWBY's eyes widened at this.

"Sir?" The Huntress raised an eyebrow at her superior.

"So, we're not in trouble?" Weiss questioned.

"Do you want to be in trouble?" He questioned back.

"No, no!" Yang quickly said as she rushed to cover Weiss' mouth. "Thank you, Headmaster! We'll just be heading back to our dorm now!" She said while pulling Weiss away from her seat to the elevator. The others followed shortly after them.

As the elevator closed, Glynda asked, "Sir, is it really such a good idea to give them so much freedom under these circumstances?"

"They would not have listened to any warnings or threats we would have given them, so I saw it best to give a word of caution instead." Ozpin told his assistant as he took another sip from his mug. "Besides, I've made sure to take the necessary precautions, including having them monitored when they head out of the Academy."

Glynda sighed. While she still didn't want those girls to go and seek trouble, Ozpin did have a point. She couldn't exactly stop them from searching for those creatures without giving some sort of punishment that would be too much even for her standards.

She decided to (somewhat) change topics by bringing up the one who tried to help Team RWBY. "What about that boy, Crys Cobalt?"

"Ah, yes. The 'unknown' in all of this." The Headmaster began, as he started to look through his Scroll. "I've already made sure to have a drone monitor him." His brow began to furrow as he ran an application. "But it's strange. I've ran his picture through the multiple databases that I have access to and have yet to come up with any I.D.. It's almost as if he didn't exist until two days ago."

Ozpin was a bit stumped in this particular situation. Just who was this boy that came from nowhere?

"What will we do about him?" Glynda asked. Other than helping Team RWBY in their battles, along with actually being Unidentified Lifeform #2, she had no method of knowing what his intentions were.

"For now, we let the drone keep an eye on him. I'll decide on what action we should take if he does anything that requires our attention." Ozpin said as he continued to look at his Scroll. "That will be all that I need from you today Glynda. You're free to leave."

"Yes, sir." Glynda Goodwitch made her depart as Professor Ozpin continued to run his application, trying to find _any_ information on "Crys Cobalt."

**-****xXx-**

_Meanwhile, with Team RWBY..._

"You didn't have to drag me out of there!" Weiss complained as she and the rest of her Team made their way back to their dorm room.

"Sorry, sorry, but I wanted to make sure you didn't get us detention for a month or something." Yang apologized to the heiress.

Weiss said nothing as she turned her head away with a loud "Hmph!"

"Going back to what Ozpin said, we've basically been given permission to hunt those Unidentified Lifeforms." Blake said to the others, "We should come up with a strategy for when we encounter #3 again."

"#3?" Yang asked.

"She's talking about that bat monster." Ruby told her sister.

"Oh." Yang reminded herself to remember the term Unidentified Lifeform, though she wasn't likely to forget.

"Blake's right." Weiss spoke, deciding to get into the conversation. "We need to prepare ourselves with what ever information we gathered during the fight, like how that thing was afraid of light."

It definitely explained why it was afraid of Myrtenaster when she activated its Fire Dust chamber.

"So, what? We just carry around flashlights?" Yang half-asked-half-joked.

"It'll be useful if we end up getting in over our heads." Blake thought it was always handy to have an escape strategy on stand-by. "What do you think, Ruby?" She asked, but didn't get an answer. She turned to see her leader staring off into space.

"Rubes?" Yang went to her little sister, a concerned expression on her face.

"Huh? OH!" Ruby flinched slightly. And then proceeded to rub the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, just thinking."

"About what?" Weiss questioned. The rest of the team now had their eyes on their leader.

"Well... It was about that guy who helped us, Crys."

"Oh, _him_." Weiss' mood immediately went back to sour.

"Oh come on, Weiss, he was only trying to help." Ruby tried to defend the well meaning bespectacled young man.

"Yes, help. I'm sure by help, you mean be a general hindrance during our fight." While she was able to forgive his involvement in the fight with the spider monster, Weiss' forgiveness did not extend to the most recent battle.

Back in the fight with Unidentified Lifeform #1, she and Blake needed to cover for him in almost every instance where he would have been fatally wounded. #3 was stronger than #1, to the point where if they had gone with the same tactics, there would be less of a chance of their survival.

"You have to admit, he _was_ messing with our team dynamics." Blake put in her two lien, the very instance Weiss was thinking of came to mind.

"He wasn't all that good at fighting, either." Yang brought up another good point. All of Crys' moves in Yang's eyes were clearly amateur.

"But... He was a big help with my plan for the spider monster!" Ruby reminded her teammates, feeling quite happy with herself for bringing up one instance of Crys' help.

"While true, his part of the plan was pretty circumstantial." Weiss countered, which brought her partners smile back down.

Yang sighed as she looped her arm over Ruby's shoulder. "Rubes, I know you like to give people a chance, but you have to realize that not everyone's meant to be a fighter."

Ruby pouted at her sister, but deflated as she finally relented to all the facts her team was giving her. "Fine. He'd probably get in the way if he tried to help us the way he is _now_." She still stood by what she said to Crys after they had first met. He had genuinely wanted to help and was willing to fight. All he needed was some proper training.

Yang sighed again. She knew her sister still hadn't let this go, but decided to drop it for now.

Weiss had decided to completely tune out any other conversation after this one. She just wanted to take a shower and go to bed at this point.

Blake, despite agreeing with her teammates (barring Ruby) stance on Crys, actually wanted to meet with the young man again. He was probably the only one who had information on what the Unidentified Lifeforms really were.

The only problem now was figuring out where, and who, he was.

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_City Streets – The Next Day – 3:25 P.M._

Police Inspector Burns was out on the streets, looking in all of the city's dark corners for clues.

The station had received a missing persons report for a man by the name of Myrtales Fuchsia. He had vanished last night without a trace and no one knew where he went.

Considering the fact that he disappeared last night, the same night that Unidentified Lifeform #3 had escaped, Burns had automatically assumed the worst.

The Inspector was searching in all the places he thought the bat would hide during the day. Unfortunately, a city as large as this one had a lot of dark corners for creatures like that to hide.

Burns needed to find that monster before nightfall.

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_City Park – Same Time_

Vale had many pristine parks located throughout the city. Certain ones had playgrounds for parents to leave their kids to play in.

It was in one of these parks that Crys had decided to spend his day in, sitting on a swing set while alone with his thoughts.

The feeling in the pit of his stomach hasn't really subsided since last night. While he could ignore it when going to sleep, it was practically screaming at him once he woke up.

Sighing, Crys decided to get up and go for a walk, his mind wandering to yesterday's events.

He felt pathetic. He was less effective in that fight than with the Spider Grongi, who he was at least able to do _some_ decent damage to by himself. But no such luck this time. Things got even worse when he was taken to the police station. While he wasn't arrested, he _was_ directly told how worthless he was in a fight. And to rub salt in that wound, no one had even bothered to come to his defense, not even Ruby, who only bothered to give him a look of sympathy.

It would be accurate to say that he felt like six different kinds of crap.

_'Maybe I should just focus on finding a way to get back home.'_ Crys thought. He really had no reason to fight. As said before, he had no experience when it came to battle. He won't be able to kill anymore Grongi with his current physical strength and he really didn't want to fight against another one again. The Hunters will be able to take of the problem. He would...

_'… just be dead weight...'_

Effectively depressing himself and making the feeling in his stomach worse, Crys decided that maybe now was the time to head back to the motel.

Or at least he would have, had he not heard the sound of someone... crying?

_'Huh?'_ That was weird, there was no one else in the park (strangely enough). So where was that sound coming from?

Crys made his way to where he thought the sound had originated from, and found a young child crying behind a tree. They looked around ten years of age and was dressed in mostly brown, which was the same color as their hair.

The bespectacled young man had a concerned expression on his face. "Hey kid, you alright?"

The kid jumped in surprise and turned around quickly. Once they saw Crys, the child quickly rubbed their eyes with his arm to get rid of the tears. "Y-yeah! Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?." The kid said while trying to look tough.

Crys didn't buy it. "Kid, you're not gonna fool anyone, especially with how red your eyes are." He told the kid with a deadpan expression. The youth flinched at this. "You wanna talk about it?" Maybe listening to another person would take Crys' mind off the current event of his life. Plus, he couldn't really stand to see someone cry.

"M-my mom said that I shouldn't talk to strangers." The kid told Crys nervously.

"Hmm, smart kid. But you know what they say, sometimes a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet." He held out his hand, "My name's Crys Cobolt. Yours?"

The youth looked hesitant, but reached out and shook anyway. "... Smokey Topaz." The now identified Smokey said in a hushed tone.

"Alright, Smokey, what's wrong?"

Smokey looked down. Crys started to wonder if this was really such a good idea, but Smokey looked back up. "I-it's my dad..." The kid's eyes started to fill with tears. "He... died last night."

Crys' eyes widened. _'Last night? Does that mean that-'_

"He's a police officer, they didn't tell me how though..." They had a downcast expression on his face again, tears threatening to spill out.

The feeling in Crys' stomach got worse. Crys thought that Smokey looked as though he was trying his hardest to fight back the tears.

"Hey," Crys began to speak as he crouched, putting his hand on the youth's head, "it's alright to cry, you know?"

"I-I can't!" Smokey said, a frown forming, tears starting to leak. "I gotta be strong! For mom!" The kid said, trying to keep a firm face.

"Yeah..." Crys' chest tightened, his gaze shifting downwards. "But it takes someone who's really strong to cry out. Your mom wouldn't want you to hold back your tears"

The youth looked hesitant once more, but finally gave in, and broke down crying into Crys' chest.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, until Smokey stepped back, bringing hands up to a teary face.

"... Thanks."

"No problem." Crys replied. "I'm not used to being used as a shoulder to cry on, but I'm more than happy to be." A gentle smile came on his face. "You want me to walk you home?"

Smokey's head shook back and forth. "I know my way back, but thanks for the offer Mister."

"Smokey! Where are you?!" A worried voice called out. Both of them turned around and saw a woman, no older than her early thirties, looking around on worry.

"Mom?"

"Ah, Smokey!" The woman rushed towards her child. "Where have you been? I've been worried about you." A sternness came about her face.

"Sorry mom..."

She sighed. "It's fine, as long as you're okay." Relief flooded her face. It was then that she noticed Crys. "Oh, who's this?"

"My name's Crys." He introduced himself with a smile.

"Mister here told me some stuff that really helped me out." A beaming smile appeared on Smokey's face.

"Really now? Well, thank you for looking out for my daughter." She gave him the kind of warm smile only a mother could give.

"Ah, it's no trouble." He scratched the back of his head.

_'Daughter? Who names their girl Smokey? Then again... I'm not really one to talk.'_

Come on, Smokey, we should get going. Thanks again for looking out for her." As they both left, Smokey turned back to wave. Crys returned the notion.

However, once the pair had left his sight, his hand lowered to his stomach.

"So..." A solemn expression made its way to his face. "That's what I was feeling."

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_Warehouse District – 7:00 P.M._

_'Okay, I need to hurry up, it's already seven. I've still got two places to search after this.'_ Burns thought as he looked at the warehouses lined up by the docks.

He had made sure, in the event he actually found Unidentified Lifeform #3, to bring some extra... _insurance._ That being the high powered shotgun in his hands. He brought some special ammunition: Fire Dust rounds. If the Aura Piercing Bullets couldn't do the trick, then pure fire power _should _be the answer.

He just hoped he was right.

**-xXx-**

_5 Minutes later..._

Police Inspector Burns was skulking through the dark warehouse, flashlight in hand, trying to spot anything suspicious. He heard a noise and immediately turned to the source: a small rock covered in a thin cloud of dust.

He turned the flashlight upward. His eyes widened in surprise.

**-****xXx-**

_Meanwhile, with Team RWBY..._

The team was at the other side of the docks, already searching for #3.

They were making sure to stay together like last time, not willing to take the risk of getting picked off one by one.

Suddenly, a bang rang out in the distance. Blake quickly turned her head and beckoned the rest of her team to follow her.

Once they reached the warehouse, Yang broke down the doors and bared witness to Inspector Burns firing a shotgun at Unidentified Lifeform #3.

"Inspector!" Ruby yelled.

"Huh?! What are you four-" Before Burns could finish, #3 lashed out to strike. The Inspector dodged and fired his shotgun, but he missed. The fired round hit some cargo, setting it ablaze. Held within the cargo, were shipments of Fire Dust, which exploded due to the flames.

"Oh shit!" Inspector Burns jumped back in surprise at the explosion. "There was Fire Dust in those containers?!"

The bat flew back, shielding its eyes from the light of the flame. However, this measly light would not deter it from the hunt of its prey.

But just as it was about to lunge forward, a new figure arrived and tackled the Unidentified Lifeform to the floor. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw who it was.

It was Crys.

"Wha-what are you doing here!?" Weiss yelled while giving the young man the coldest glare.

"I'm to help you guys!"

"Kid, I told you not to interfere." Burns said as he began to stride towards him.

"NO!" Crys suddenly exclaimed, surprising everyone there and halting the Inspector in his tracks. "I can't just stand around and let people die when I can do something about it!" His face hardened, the fire reflecting off his eyes.

"That's why I've decided to fight!" The belt appeared upon his waist in a flash. "If not for myself, then for the sake of others!" He extended his right arm forward diagonally to his left, his left arm horizontally parallel to the belt. His right hand had its pointed up, pinky and ring finger curled while the others were pointed up. His left hand mimicked his right, but with a straightened wrist.

"Now stand back as I change, and witness my..." His raised arm moved right and his left arm moved the his side, hand closing into a fist.

"HENSHIN!"

His right hand made an arc onto his left forearm, pressing down. The belt began to sound as he splayed his arms downward.

**BREET!**

**BREET! BREET! BREET-BREET! BREET-BREET! BREETBREETBREETBREETBREETBREET!**

**SHING!**

With each chime, armor started to form on him from the bottom up. Once the transformation was complete, everyone stared at Crys' new form. It looked similar to his previous form, only all the white and orange was instead a deep red, and the horns on his head where longer.

Now in Kuuga's Mighty Form, Crys charged towards the Bat Grongi.

The Grongi had gotten up and went to strike at the new foe, but Kuuga dodges and land a few hits on the creature.

The bat reels back, hand placed on where it was struck and pointed at Crys. It spoke in its ancient, putting emphasis on the word, "Kuuga".

"Kuuga..." Crys looked at his hands, "Yeah..." and clenched. "I'm Kuuga!"

He returned on his assault on the monster. Whenever the bat tried to counter attack, it was interrupted by a entering the fray. The fighters began to coordinate their attacks, switching out on each hit, keeping up the assault.

Kuuga landed a kick in the Grongi's gut, which was followed by a few shots by Ruby, pushing it back. She was smiling on the inside, glad to see her trust in Crys was well founded.

Yang weaved in, landing some heavy blows on the monsters head, finishing with an uppercut that launched it into the air. She thought back to Crys' performance in the battle. _'He's still sloppy, but he's doing better than before.'_ She then thought about Crys' determined expression before he transformed. _'Is this really the same guy?'_

Blake fired a few rounds at the ascending bat. She attached the ribbon on from her wrist onto the katana half of Gambol Shroud. She threw it at the Unidentified Lifeform and it began to wrap itself around its midsection. She pulled with all her might, slamming the creature hard into the floor. _'That Crys guy's doing better than before, it must be that belt.'_

With Myrtenaster set in its Fire Dust Chamber, Weiss dashed forward and stabbed her blade into the creature, launching it _straight_ through the wall. _'Hm, this guy's actually being useful this time.'_

With the Monster out of the building, Team RWBY and Kuuga started to give chase.

Meanwhile, Police Inspector Burns made a call on his Scroll as he watched all of this. "This is Burns, send firefighters over to the warehouse district, warehouse #19. Do it quick!" He had thought about asking for backup, but one glance at the combatants erased those thoughts. With a smirk, Burns thought they could handle the situation and exited the now burning building to make sure there were no civilians in the area.

As Weiss, Blake and Yang leaped through the hole, Crys' confidence began to rise. _'This is going better than I thought!'_ He was beginning to smile under his helmet._'We could actually win and kill this thi-'_

However, Kuuga's thoughts were cut off as something struck him in the face and launched him into a nearby wall. He lifted his head and saw the Spider Grongi, now supporting a large diagonal scar on its chest, joining the fray and turning its attention on Ruby.

_'Oh God dammit! How did I forget about this guy!?'_ Kuuga could only curse in frustration as he got up and charged at the new combatant. _'Man, it looks pretty pissed of too.'_

The girls heard what was happening and turned around to rush back.

"No! I got this! Focus on the bat monster! He's weakened enough that you can kill it now!" Kuuga yelled out.

"He's right!" Ruby agreed ready to leap to her friends, "We should-Whoa!" She hastily dodged a swipe from the Spider Grongi. Kuuga tried to get its attention on him, but the arachnid was intent on ending Ruby now.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled out trying to get to her sister but was blocked off by a support beam falling in front of the hole, blocking it.

Yang punched the beam but it barely budged. When she was about to strike again, she heard Ruby yell out, "Yang! I'll be Okay! Just find that bat monster!"

Yang wanted to yell in protest, but decided to begrudgingly follow her leaders order,. and left with the rest of her team..

Kuuga put himself between the Spider Grongi and Ruby, all three combatants taking on battle stances.

"Well..." Crys muttered under his breath, "Time for round two."

**-xXx-**

The rest of Team RWBY followed the Unidentified Lifeform to a nearby construction site covered in shadow.

The proceeded to engage the creature in combat. Yang, taking the forefront, went for its face with a Right Straight, but missed as the bat shifted to the right. It went for an upward slash, which Yang barely avoided.

"Ha! You'll need to do better than-" She saw a lock of her own hair, falling before her face. "... That..."

The world froze before her eyes. The bat tried to capitalize on the opening, but was blocked by Yang gripping its wrist.

"You... **BASTAAAARD!**" Her eyes light up a bloody red, her hair rose up in a golden glow. As Blake and Weiss saw this, they both thought, _'We should probably sit this one out...'_

Yang struck the bat with a left hook, her hands engulfed in white-hot flames. Shifting her weight, she followed with a similar right hook, and again with a left. Again and again, Yang pummeled the bat with a flaming, unstoppable onslaught, her arms like jet pistons, the wind force strong enough that it could be felt by Blake and Weiss a few feet away.

Yang slowed down to catch her breath, and the Bat Grongi, realizing it was _horribly_ outclassed, realized it needed to escape. As Yang swung another blow, the bat leaned back, throwing her off her off balance, giving the bat the opening it needed to escape.

Yang would have none of that and tried to grab the creatures leg, but missed. She tried firing Ember Celica at the retreating monster, only to find out that she had used up all her ammo in the onslaught prior. Blake and Weiss tried to shoot it down, but the cover of the construction site made it impossible to hit before it got out of range.

Yang cursed at this. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before turning to her teammates and saying, "We need to get to Ruby."

The others agreed while Blake added, "That Semblance of yours is dangerous, remind me never to get you mad."

Weiss silently agreed with her while Yang just smirked at her partners remark.

**-xXx-**

The battle had dragged out to the top of a rooftop nearby the warehouse district. Ruby and Kuuga were trading blows with the spider, but despite it being two-on-one, they had yet to gain the upper hand.

Ruby dashed forward, raising Crescent Rose for a downward strike, missing at the last second. Kuuga, however, was there to intercept with a sweep kick, barely grazing it by the chin. The spider was just barely able to dodge their blows, but it had no room to breath.

The Spider Grongi started shooting its webbing at the Crimson Duo at a rapid rate. Kuuga managed to dodge the shots at the nick of time, but Ruby was not so fortunate. One of the shots got Ruby in the foot, trapping her in place. The monster made a beeline for the Huntress-in-Training, but was interrupted by Kuuga tackling it to the floor.

Kuuga was about to strike again, but the creature shot webbing around his neck, pulling him down while it got back up. It then proceeded to stomp on Kuuga's chest and began to pull the web, intending to chock the life out of the young Kuuga.

However, the Grongi had forgotten about the little red hood, which proved to be a mistake. She aimed Crescent Rose at the back of its head and fired, dazing it enough for Kuuga to grab it by the ankle and pull it off.

_'Okay, now would be a good time to kick it while... it's...'_ Crys held back the urge to facepalm at his own stupidity. _'Oh, DUH! What the hell was I thinking!?'_ "Ruby! Keep firing at that thing! I got a plan!"

"Okay!" After three strikes at the webbing using Crescent Rose, Ruby had finally freed herself and began using her super speed to run circles around the Grongi while firing her weapon in rifle mode.

While the beast was distracted, Kuuga crouched his knees halfway, right behind the left, his arms splayed downward. _'Okay Crys. Focus.'_ He began to energy gathering in his right foot, and started feeling it growing hotter.

Then, the bottom of his foot became set ablaze.

"Ruby! Get back now!" Kuuga yelled at the young girl as he began to run at the Spider Grongi.

Ruby did what the armored youth told her and ran to the other edge of the rooftop.

Kuuga leaped forward, extending his right foot towards the foe, making contact with the creatures chest.

As Kuuga pushed himself off the monsters chest, the energy transferred to the point of impact, Pushing the spider back. Kuuga landed on his behind and immediately got back up in case the battle continued.

The Spider Grongi got back up as well, but faltered as it took a step, grabbing a hold of his chest. A rune appeared where it clutched, looking similar to the ones adorned on Kuuga's belt. The Grongi began to speak in its ancient tongue as cracks started to appear on its body from the rune. The Crimson Duo, while not understanding the creature, could feel the anger in its words. The cracks spread farther, reaching the gold belt buckle on its waste. With one last grunt of pain, the spider cursed Kuuga name.

_**BOOOOOOOM!**_

The monster became engulfed in a large fireball, its body parts scattering across the rooftop. While Crys saw it coming, he was no less surprised from the turnout. That was a lot more gruesome than he expected.

Ruby could not help but stare in awe. "You were able to make that thing _explode_ with just a _kick_?! That's so _COOL_!" _'And gruesome.'_ While the flying body parts were gross, she wasn't going to overlook that _awesome_ final attack.

Crys rubbed the back of his neck to Ruby's compliment, not used to such praise. _'Still,'_ He thought, _'At least this battle's over. But... if my memory's right, then this won't be the last time Kuuga will have to fight a Grongi.'_

"Ruby!" The sound of Yang's voice drew both of their attention to the remainder of Team RWBY. "We heard the explosion are you.. all..." All three of their eyes widened to the site of scorched concrete and body parts of what they assume to be Unidentified Lifeform #1. "Wha-... what happened here, Rubes?" She said in incomprehension.

"YANG! It was so _COOL_!' Ruby dashed to her teammates and began regaling the battle in (exaggerated) detail.

Crys decided that now would be the best time to make his leave. He turned around to leap off the building.

"Hey, wait!" Interrupted, he turned to see Ruby, a smile on her face. "Thanks for the help earlier."

Weiss put in her own response. "Yes, you were less nuisance then last time."

"Um... thanks I guess?" He shrugged.

"Yeah, you did okay out there." Yang joined in, hands behind her head.

Blake said nothing, but the slight smile and nod she gave him was more than enough.

Crys found himself unable to say anything in response to this latest bout of praise. Instead, he just decided to give them a thumbs up before he jumping off the roof just as the sun set.

Team RWBY just stood there for a few seconds, before turning back to the site of the battle. One thought ran through all the girls minds, _'What are we gonna tell Ozpin?'_

**-xXx-**

_Vale_

_Beacon Academy – Around the same time_

Ozpin had witnessed Crys comfort the young girl at the park, and had seen his resolve in taking on Unidentified Lifeforms #3 and 1. _'Commendable. He certainly has promise.'_ While his combat skills are lacking, it's nothing proper training couldn't fix. Besides, he wanted to ask the young man a few questions anyway.

After a sip from his mug, he made a call on his Scroll. "Glynda, I want you to visit the Solatium Motel first thing tomorrow morning. I believe it is time Mr. Cobalt paid Beacon a visit."

It would be an interesting year indeed.

**-xXx-**

**Final Note:**

**So, what did you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Make sure to leave any constructive criticisms and/or questions you have in the in the review section.**

**Phew! That chapter sure was a beefer! It makes up for the long wait, right?... Right?**

…

**[Please don't kill me, I'm a college student! My schedule conflicts with Aeon's! He's not though, so feel free to end him instead.]**

**Thanks Tannin...**

**[You're welcome! :D]**

**Anyway, yeah. Sorry for the long wait. Unfortunately, I have to say that the next one won't get uploaded for a while too. I _can_ say that it will come this year though, so you can look forward to that.**

**You guys should have seen the original version of Yang laying it into the Bat Grongi. It was the hypest shit!**

**(Listen to this while reading! Skip to 0:33) watch?v=GNnQnLp1Pu0**

**[Yeah! Yang, after doing sickass FLAMING DEMPSEY ROLLS(!) would've uppercutted the Bat Grongi into a Hyakuretsu Ken and finished it off with the same double punch Jonathan Joestar used against Dio Brando near the end of Part 1, causing its head to spin of, covered in flames!]**

**Well that about does it for us, I'm The Aeon Offspring.**

**[And I'm Tannin Not Long Name.]**

**Shut up. And we'll see you next time!**

**[May the Dempsey Roll be with you!]**

**Signing Off.**

**-xXx-**

_**"**__I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death.__"_

_-Monty Oum_

_We love you, Monty._

_Rest In Peace._


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